Do The Math: You Never Settle For

My Fondest Memories Were Watching The Beastie Boys Get Prepped To Come On Stage. They Had A Lot Of Antics And They Play A Lot Of Basketball... Then They Were Giving Out Cameras To The Crowd, And Performing From The Bleachers. The Most Important Thing I Learned Was That You Control Your Crowd, Not The Other Way Around.

People Didn't Really Take White Rappers Seriously Until Eminem, Because He Was Better Than Everybody. Like Female Emcees, You Need To Be Like Lauryn Hill Or Nicki Minaj Or Killing Everything Before Somebody Takes You Seriously.

Artists Look At The Environment, And The Best Artists Correctly Diagnose The Problem. I'm Not Saying Artists Can't Be Leaders, But That's Not The Job Of Art, To Lead. Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte - There Are Artists All Through History Who Have Become Leaders, But That Was Already In Them, Nothing To Do With Their Art.

By The Time You Get Into Other Kinds Of Music - R&b, Country, Or Whatever - It Becomes Something That's Romantic. It Becomes Something Unattainable. Never-ending Undying Love. And In Hip Hop, We're Still Taking Direct Inspiration.

A Flower That Grow In The Ghetto Know More About Survival Than The One From Fresh Meadows.