When I try to sound like the contemporary sound, it never turns out that way. That's just me.
Africa has been going through so much for so many years; it's time that it stands up the way other nations are standing up.
I like the way hip-hop is now. It's grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.
With rap music, because it's all so on the street, you get treated like a street cat: "All right, you've been eatin' enough, you're fat, get out of the way now and let somebody else come by."
Big L scared me to death. When I heard that on tape, I was scared to death. I was like there's no way I can compete if this is what I gotta compete with.