I love what I do. I'm still humble.

I try to support my kids in what they do and, at the same time, not push them towards anything.

Maybe I'm too sensitive to the struggle, but I think a lot of people that listen to music are trying to escape.

When you're dealing with a bunch of different producers, you gotta make sure the chemistry fits.

I'm a fan of hip-hop as well. I like everybody who keeps the game on their toes and keep it pushing.

We need the media to know that some of us are really passionate about music.

Don't even go to the studio if you don't think that your music's going to do something. You're wasting your time and my time.

In New York, they kind of rode with me from day one: they understand who I am.

Sometimes I write from the end of the verse to the beginning of the verse.

Lil Wayne is doing his thing, and so is Drake.

You've really got to appreciate an artist that's really outspoken and feels like his music can change the world.

I had nothing but respect for Pac.

Music, life, a lot of the things that we go through in the world, a lot of questions that we have about the world inspires me.

I'm definitely one of them artists that loves putting the track on and having fun with it, but in my own way.

I know how to read music, watching my mom and listening to Mom play music.

You grow, you mature, you live, and you learn. You get a little wiser, and you learn better ways to handle things.

My thing was, I loved music. I played music: I played the saxophone. So the little bit of music knowhow I had, I tried to implement that in every thing I did, from my style, my cadence, the way I tried to pause and stagnate it; that all came from John Coltrane and listening to jazz albums. Trying to rhyme like a jazz player.

When you look at hip-hop, I want to do that: to spit fire and take our best from the ashes to build our kingdom; to recognize all the regional styles, conscious lyrics, the tracks, underground, mainstream, the way we treat each other. Lose the garbage and rebuild our scene.

I love what I live, and I live Islam, so I applied it to everything I do. I applied it to my rhymes, and I felt that I wanted the people to know what I knew.

When you listen to old-school music, you can smell your mother's food in the kitchen. You can feel where you was when you first heard that song. That's what's beautiful about music. It's for everyone, but we all have individual memories that make us love it.

When I started rhyming, my favorite rhythms were from John Coltrane and some of the things he did on sax. And certain rhythms that I hear on drums, I try to emulate with my words, dropping on the same patterns that them beats or them notes would hit.

My mother sang jazz and opera - she even performed at the Apollo on Amateur Night.

I stick to my guns - that's what keeps me going as an artist. Stevie Wonder never changed from what he wanted to do, and each new album that came along was dope.

Eminem is a master.

Jada, Styles P, the LOX, period. You throw on one of their joints... I'm in the whip; I try to keep my cool in the whip. I don't like bouncing around, getting my crazy on, but it's certain joints you gotta wild out. Roll the window down, blast the joints, let it be heard. That's one of them groups that bang it out.

We gotta let hip-hop grow. We gotta let it go through its different phases throughout the different places that's accepting it.

No Doubt is one of the groups that I think everybody listens to, man, and everybody loves Gwen Stefani.

New York is responsible for bringing that raw, that real gritty hip-hop, because we... originated it.

I don't believe in writer's block. I'll get stuck, but being stuck, I'll still write a verse. If you know where you're going, you can always start from there and work your way back.

Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks - you can tell what he raps about and what he's been through is very similar. You've got a lot of rappers that rap about what they've heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.

You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, 'Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. 'Yes, sir. No sir.' Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That's your job.'

Everything I did on the 'Paid in Full' album and those first three albums, I wrote everything right in the studio.

You can't have 12 records on your album and none of them sound alike. You gotta kind of have something to make them say, 'That sounds like Rakim.'

I'm very smart with my paper! I stopped buying things for myself a long time ago - now I just buy things for my kids or my wife.

Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I've been around since 1986.

The golden age was when people were starting to understand what hip-hop was and how to use it. I was lucky to come up then. Everybody wanted to be original and have substance; it was somewhat conscious... There was an integrity that people respected.

To know that I was being heard on the radio, it made me feel as if I was, I guess, spread across New York. It was incredible.

As a young artist, especially in rap and at that time that I came out, originality was big.

Back in the day, rappers were 'bump bump bump ba bump ba bump.' They was rhyming like that, but I was like, 'bababa bump bump babum ba babump bababa bump.'

People always tell me that they grew up with me - like I'm their brother or uncle or some other family member. That keeps me going.

My aunt Ruth Brown was a jazz musician. I got hooked on it at a young age, understanding what John Coltrane was doing playing two notes on the saxophone at the same time, which is impossible.

Sometimes you can't forgive, but you try to forget.

I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.

You come up, you love music, and then business interferes.

The truth never wears out.

I'm a fan of Jay-Z, from the negotiating table to the booth.

When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn't go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.

Social media gives a lot of people a platform where they can express their feelings. I like to do mine through songs. I let info build up. In some way, it translates into paper whenever I sit down.

I'm not a mainstream artist. But I've seen my kids being born; I've seen them take their first steps, I've seen them grow up and start school. That's worth more to me than any umpteen million dollars.

I'm not in that state of mind that I was back in '86 - hip-hop is not in that state of mind that it was back in '86. Times change. I change.