D.C.'s a tough place to get love unless you're from D.C. It's like everybody hates you here. The only black person that everyone can agree on is Obama.

The ability to make somebody feel something: that's art. However you look at it, whether you're an author, a painter, a singer, a rapper, a spoken-word artist - art.

My job is to inspire the people, to be on top of my game and push my culture forward.

Not everybody is a great rapper; not everybody lives for the art of lyricism.

I'm insecure about things. I'm not afraid to say it, though. Even when my publicist is like, 'Go on the red carpet,' I don't wanna go.

Making love is, simply put, poetry in motion.

I take a lot of pride in my live show and put more energy there than I do in the studio.

I come from a place, with all due respect, who's never had a music star in hip-hop. So the odds is already against me.

I put my foot in my mouth sometimes. I'll be the first to admit it.

I want to be on a show that's not sensitive to racial jokes; I want to be on one where they call me everything and I call them right back. There's blatant racism going both ways. That's what we need.

If someone doesn't have a reason to not like you in America, they talk politics or religion. Then they get to hate you and we get to be enemies.

I like David Beckham just because of his lifestyle. He don't ever need to score another goal again. How many times has he been on the cover of GQ?

Every artist is supposed to get emotional. You're painting pictures of emotions.

I'm fortunate enough to be living my dreams and a lot of other peoples' dreams.

I'm a black man in the United States of America, so I always feel like there's a target on me.

There's no way you can win when you're the president; you've got to be the scapegoat for America's issues.

I feel like I'm one of the more creative artists in the game. I think I'm going to be here for a while.

I used to have a real passion for writing, but not so much anymore - probably because I do too much of it.

I hope everybody thinks they've got the best album. I wouldn't have put mine out if I didn't think it was the best.

A lot of my female fans discovered me through the passion I have for bettering myself. Not to say the dudes don't, but my female fan-base is based off women who want to do better.

I don't be remembering women that I've met before. I don't remember people as a whole. It's crazy. A lot of times, people get in their feelings, like, 'You don't remember me?!'

I'd love a super human memory. My memory has never been good.

I used to switch up my cologne every two to three months, get a new wave - Dolce, Versace, Burberry. But Black Orchid, that joint stayed. That's the smell of beauty that stays on you... and girls love Tom Ford.

Ruzzle's my therapy. When I get off the stage from a packed show and I'm exhausted, I'll just go Ruzzle for like a good 30 minutes.

There are certain things that can be asked that get me excited. It's never a thing where I think I'm too good, I'm just the type of person who likes to be enlightened. I don't like to go through the motions.

I'm learning as I go. I don't know everything. I never had anybody to look at, nobody ever taught me, and where I'm from I didn't have any famous role models.

I don't wanna sound pretentious talking about myself.

I go out, but not too much. When I'm on tour, I just write a lot of music and sleep.

In terms of 'Seinfeld', I think there's lot of reality in a show that's supposed to be about nothing.

You don't necessarily pick the singles that you want when you're making a record, but for the most part it's the same process. You're the artist - you make the music that you want to make.

Mix-tapes are something that have been going on for a while. They've been pretty important to hip-hop for the past 10 years. It's the way we advertise our music to the public for free.

We lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Northwest D.C. I was essentially raised by a Panamanian man and a Jamaican woman. That's why I have such a fascination with Jamaican food.

Everything's pretty consistent in the industry, you know. There's a couple of naysayers, whatever, people who don't agree. But for the most part a lot of people believe in the new class of MC's that coming to the game.

I don't want to be one of those guys that you see who made $4 million, invested $3.5 million, and now you work at Wendy's.

I never had money; I like nice things, but I don't let that run my life. At the same time, I have to let something drive me... so now I let the money drive me.

The Web is the new way to figure out who's hot and what's not. You can't let TV dictate because it's so polished, so political. It is what they want you to know. The Internet is the raw.

I'm a regular person. I know a lot of people love being famous. I don't like it. I'm just chillin'. YouknowwhatI'msayin'?

My life is better than a lot of people I know. I'm definitely happy about that.

When we were in D.C. my daddy used to cut his hair with a bowl. Crucial. If you're African, Haitan, Jamaican or even more poor than the people in the project, you'll know about that.

I'm never satisfied, man. I'm Virgo. We overanalyze and we're never satisfied. So I'm gonna keep going 'til the wheels fall off.

I speak my mind. That's what we loved Tupac for.

I'm a passionate person, to a fault at times.

It's a trend to insult Wale, like that makes you cool on the Internet, and a part of it is because I respond.

No days off. I'm a workaholic.

The first thing that's important is to really have people believe in you. If you have that, you can do anything.

I've always been a Nike person.

My dream tour would be like, me, Cole, Drake, Sean, Meek. I think that would be dope, something like that; big venues.

I dated a lot, but I never really had anyone who was worthy of an anniversary. And most girlfriends never made it to a year, anyway.

All the rappers my age are getting Audemars and Rolexes. I want to find my own thing. That's why I travel the world - for me, that's my B-side, why we go places. I have a Hublot on from time to time but I want a home base watch - something that's elegant but has got a little pizzazz to it.

Sometimes I'm happy - you can tell via Twitter. Sometimes I'm pissed off - you can tell via Twitter. I just think, at the end of the day, I don't want them to see me as a celebrity; I just want them to see me and say, 'He's like a regular person at his job right now who's mad.'