Just give me a mic, and I'll rock it.

Scarface is my favorite rapper.

I'm not a big video game dude though, but I like 'Madden.'

Eminem heard my music, and he didn't wanna take a meeting with me.

Every project might only sell like 30 to 50,000, but I mean, I'm getting seven, eight dollars every CD. I make more money per record than an artist on a major label - I can definitely say that.

I went to a Bulls game when it was still in Chicago Stadium before they built the United Center.

Nobody else was saying what he said on air, and sometimes he pushed the envelope when he said the newest Jay Z line with a Michael Jordan highlight. But Stuart Scott was an artist.

I'm from Gary, Indiana, and everybody's damn near at the poverty level. It's a rough city to grow up in, and it's a modern-day ghost town.

You've got a lot of Tupac clones, but I don't think I'm one of them. I just think I give people a little piece of the feeling he gave them.

When everybody goes left, I'm gonna go right most of the time.

Probably dancing to Cassie's 'Me & U' - That's my guilty pleasure.

I've been interested in basketball since I was a little kid - like, 3. The Bulls were my team. If you grew up in Gary, the Bulls were everybody's team.

'Kind of Blue' is one of the best records of all time. Miles' use of space is something rap fans can definitely appreciate. Sometimes you have to let the track breathe and throw a melody in here and there. He never did too much on 'Kind of Blue.' It's the perfect vibe.

Madlib isn't a beatmaker, he's a producer.

A lot of improvisation and freedom went into 'Pinata.'

Ninety percent of the general public aren't gangstas, so all of the rappers aren't going to be gangstas.

I study my competition for at least an hour a day. I get on the Internet, I look at what they doing, and then I look at ways to defeat them. I know their mixtapes track-by-track. I know some of their lyrics.

I wasn't fully aware of the things that Madlib did musically, but my manager put me up on game. I'm not gonna act like I was a Madlib head when I wasn't. I didn't understand a lot of it at first. But it opened my mind to some things, and it's me bringing that gangster element to things that he does. It's like a perfect marriage.

I tried to watch 'Inception,' but I fell asleep.

He's been my number one influence. If you say Tupac didn't influence you, then you don't really need to be rapping because nobody evokes that kind of emotion on a track like Tupac does.

I like A$AP Rocky and his stuff - Kendrick too.

I played wide receiver in high school; then I went to college at Ball State and played safety.

I always knew that I would be some type of public figure, but I never knew that it would be rapping, 'cause my dad sang: I saw him deal with the ills of the music industry, just on the outside looking in.

I'm a loyal dude.

The neck is not something you should have surgery on that much.

The Bears need to let me be GM.

I still bump 'Smells Like Teen Spirit.' I used to listen to it before all my football games.

Drake makes some dope songs.

I don't like rap that doesn't have a story behind it.

When you go to places like Gary and Detroit, you see the economic problem in this country and who it's really affecting.

I ain't never detached myself from Gary.

I've always played that role in my family: the breadwinner.

We have good, neighborly people in Gary.

Ain't nothin' changed with me. I'm Eastside Gary til I die.

When I first came in the game, I had a bunch of homies that rapped that was hanging around me just because I was getting the rap attention, and they felt they could feed off of that.

I don't mind travelling. I'm independent, so I gotta get on the grind.

Tupac is definitely an icon. There'll never be another Tupac, so I'm not gonna ever, ever try to fill those shoes. I'm just gonna stay in my lane and be the best me that I can be.

Coming up in America in the '80s and '90s, we were not too far removed from slavery. People forget that.

I remember I used to go school with guys who couldn't afford notebooks, pens, paper: the necessary tools needed in order to survive in school. It's a lot of kids in Gary who are at a disadvantage without that.

Me separating from CTE - I'm extremely happy about that because a lot of guys wrote me off, Jeezy included. He really wrote me off.

I ain't on no major. Everything independent. Either way it goes, I am doing me, and I am doing Freddie Gibbs.

I am the evil seed.

I had a nightmare that I was mopping floors and that this Freddie Gibbs thing was all a dream.

I never took a dollar from Young Jeezy. No advance, nothing.

I have a respect for Young Jeezy. But the reason things didn't work out for me and Young Jeezy was because our approach to the industry... My approach to the industry was a tad bit different than his. I wanted to approach my career a different way; he wanted to go a different way.

I'm not really comfortable with being on songs with cats I don't really know.

I think that with me and Madlib, I was never afraid to really experiment with his tracks and things.

I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.

I like good music, whichever lane it comes out of. As long as it's dope, that is all that matters with me.

I feel like I influence more than just rap.