“I would definitely want a hit record, but I still want the success to be around the album. Only the music can help me.”

The streets helps you a lot in music, cause it let’s you know that you can’t trust nobody and that nobody’s gonna wait for you. You can’t just sit there with dope in your pocket and think that people are gonna come to you. You gotta put the product out there.

I’m not anti single. I’m not one of them niggas that say “Aww record sales ain’t everything.” No. I wanna sell good. I would love a platinum record on radio and charts.

We’re living or dying. We’re already dead, the living dead. So do what you gotta do. Take care of your family, of yourself as a whole, and everything will be alright.

I think thats what most of us rappers do too often. We put too much information in some of our albums that could actually be on the next ones.

All these niggas that have good music have longevity.

One thing I’m big on is believing in giving an album time. I’ll say you’ll have to give an album three years before you can call it a classic. If you can’t listen to it three years later then it’s not really a classic.

I hate the business part of music. Music is just like the streets. There’s loyal and disloyal people, people saying one thing and then don’t do it.

I let my music do the talking. Ain’t no TV show gonna help me. Ain’t no hit single gon help me sell no records.

I never wanna have a time where I’m on the big lawn just sitting back smoking cigars and drinking lemonade. I wanna work forever. Until I die. I wanna die on the way to a show.

I smoke weed.It’s not an addiction. It’s something I wanna do. It’s not smart though. It’s not good for my body but I’m doing it. I’m not telling people to do it.

When you become an artist you’re working away from home for so much time. You really see what the use of time means to you once you’re an artist and you travel so much.

I didn’t spend money on nothin’. Besides my daughter, bucket hats, and weed.

Charisma, that’s my strong point. My personality was always good, but with music I had to grow into it. I grew into who I am now.

If I was with some other rappers who aren’t as polished, or I was the only rapper, I don’t think I would be where I’m, nor would I be rapping. They pushed me, we pushed each other on every record.

I’m a real stubborn person. I’m still humble, not too cocky, but I’m big headed. I know what I wanna do and I know how I wanna do it and I know what needs to be done.

People saying that you been robbed is almost better than winning a Grammy.

The average rap life is two or three albums. You’re lucky to get to your second album in rap!

When I’m recording my album, I want to be acting, or when I’m on set, I want to be making music.

Nothing me and Kanye can do musically was gonna match the event of what we were trying to do. So we were trying to deliver an album and experience at one time; that was the idea for ‘Watch The Throne’.

When you have a reputation for making not only good songs but great albums, that in itself creates added artistic pressure. But, at the end of the day, I guess that pressure is something I welcome.

My first album was mainly dealing with street issues, and it was ‘coded’: it was called ‘Reasonable Doubt.’ So the things I was talking about…

I don’t sit around with my friends and talk about money, ever. On a record, that’s different.

You make your first album, you make some money, and you feel like you still have to show face, like ‘I still go to the projects.’ I’m like, why? Your job is to inspire people from your neighborhood to get out. You grew up there. What makes you think it’s so cool?

MTV made a huge impact. Heavy rotation took you from selling 1m albums to 20m albums, and that meant a lot of dough.