I'm a common dude.

I'm not trying to act like I'm Superman or better than anybody else in the game. I'm just telling my story, showing my strengths and weaknesses - as a human, as a person, as a man.

I don't like pre-written raps; I think it makes the song better if you listen to the beat first. In a sense, you have to make a marriage with the beat. I ride the beat, hear the flow of the drums, get the melody of my flow, and then from that point, it's a process of what I want to say.

I look at some of my fans at my show, and a lot of them look like they're straight out of a punk rock show. They like what I'm coming across with. I had seen them same thing when I went to this Scarface show, so it lets me know that I'm on the right track.

This is the land of getting over. The land of second or even third chances; the land of doing whatever you have to do by any means necessary in order to fulfill the American Dream.

It's in the American spirit to take advantage of an opportunity.

I'm trying to bring gangster rap back to the forefront, like in the early '90s.

I'm not trying to obey the rules of radio.

Jeezy just recognized my grind, and I jumped on board with him to enhance it. Artistically, we're in the same mind frame. We come from very similar backgrounds - poverty. That's something that we can both relate to, something that we can convey in our music.

After I got dropped by Interscope, I knew in my heart that I had to fight back some way or not rap at all. I just took it upon myself to get myself where I needed to be.

I've been engulfed in sports since I was a 2-year-old; I picked up any kind of ball - a basketball, baseball, football - I just loved to play something. I loved the energy of being in arenas and watching the game on TV.

Stuart Scott was a hero.

I just want to put my stamp on all kinds of music. Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street-based, street-oriented.

I'm like LeBron, man. I'm like a smaller LeBron. That's why I'm not in the NBA. If I had about five, six more inches, I'd be in the league.

I'm just glad we get to see old records being broken. That's what sports is all about.

I started hustling in early adolescence.

I never write a song before I get the track because I just feel that I have to make a marriage with that track with my raps. And if it's something that's already there, it ain't gone really fit, I don't think.

Gary is a old factory town right outside Chicago. From my standpoint, my family migrated there in the '50s and '60s from Mississippi - Sardis, Mississippi - shout out to Sardis, Mississippi. My family migrated there just like a lot of black families in that area: they migrated there to get jobs, to get those factory jobs, that steel mill job.

The things I rap about are 100 percent real. But at the same time, I don't rap about those things to tear my city down. I give you the reality of what it is and what I been through and how it is living in those conditions in Gary, Ind.

I'm so hands-on and involved in my own music that I feel like if I put the same effort into another artist, then I can definitely cultivate something great.

If you say your product is the best, back that up.

I'd be quiet as a mouse if I didn't have the correct feeling about my music. I feel like I'm able to talk about it and say I'm one of the best because I think I got the music to back that up. I got the live show to back that up. That's all that matters.

Everything don't work out for the best. You have to use a lot of those things as lessons in order to build yourself up.

I always want everything I do to be somewhat cinematic. I don't want to be the rapper that'll just post up and shoot a video anywhere with no real meaning to it.

I think that 'Pinata' album is going to stand the test of time. It's going to be a moment in hip-hop, whether people know it or not. It's nothing else like that in rap. It's going to forever hold its place.

I always feel like the underdog.

I can do a whole project with Madlib and turn around and do a record with Gucci Mane. Gucci Mane, E-40, and Black Thought on the same record. I like all those rappers, so why can't I work with them in some type of capacity? It just speaks to my versatility. I don't just listen to one type of rap. I listen to all of it so I can make all of it.

I feel like some artists need a record label, and some don't.

Gary is a really impoverished town; it's in industrial decay. There's low employment and things of that nature.

I don't ever really plan my sets. I just get out there and feel the energy of the crowd.

I wanted to be in the NBA. I wanted to be in the NFL.

I grew up on N.W.A., Geto Boys. My dad was listening to that.

I wanted to be a gangsta from birth, not because of the music but moreso what I was seeing, what my uncles were doing. I was just fascinated with the street lifestyle from a young age.

I'm an educated individual.

Different rappers got different talents. It's like X-Men.

I want to be one of the most versatile rappers in the game.

I ain't giving up on myself, so if you give up on me, I ain't got nothing else to say for you.

You gotta catch the sauce. Move with me... I'm dripping sauce.

You got one life to live. So I'm living it the way I want to live it.

I've always been into fashion since I was a kid. I love fashion. I appreciate it. I just enjoy dressing up and getting all the new sneakers and all the hot exclusive clothes - I did even when I was young.

I do everything for my family.

I know I haven't always done things the right way. I'm just trying to reflect on how to make myself better, how to become a better man, a better father, a better person, a better artist.

Don't ask for a million dollars. Ask for the stuff that'll get you a million dollars - your health, your brain, your sanity, wisdom. Prepare me for when I do get that million. Make sure I don't go crazy, make sure I help my family.

I want to keep doing what I'm doing and see how far I can go. See when it stops. See what the end is like. I want to make this moment last as long as I can make it. If I miss a day, I'm afraid I'll miss out on a smash record.

I feel like I just wanna go back to being more underground.

That's the time that I enjoy: away from the cameras, away from the audience, the scenery of going out to eat and everybody's staring at me.

I feel like guitar explains a lot. You can just listen to a guitar without any lyrics over it; you can just feel what kind of track it is. If it's pain... you can feel it. It sets the mood.

You get inspiration from craziest places. It's just about being creative. You gotta step outside that box, you know what I'm saying, to reach the people. You never know who can feel it; who it can connect to.

I gotta have my long trench coats, a nice scarf for the winter time when you're walking around, and some nice fitted jeans to go with the trench coats.

You make music to change the radio, not make music for the radio.