“Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.”

Marley is someone before his time, man. He’s – he’s almost – he’s like a deity, like almost, you know what I mean?

I’m smiling. Those things are really not bad enough to put me in a slump. I’m smiling with the opportunity to wake up every morning.

Hip-hop is bigger than the South; hip-hop is bigger than New York.

When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I’ve seen out there, you know, the things that’s out there that ain’t good for her. It’s a crazy world we live in.

I think if I heard someone else talking about their life, describing all the problems I’ve had, they’d look like they were through. Done. But there’s something about me.

GaGa is one of my favourites. Her voice is incredible and she’s fearless and she’s ahead of the game. She’s ahead of the entire game, and I admire that.

I’m just little me, an American who wants to see his country do better.

Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun.

The flaws, the mistakes I make – that’s the real me.

Every generation witnesses atrocities. People in power try to fulfill prophecy.

My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.

I had a pretty public divorce. They’re not easy – divorces – and it took me a long time to really get through.

I want to have fun. It’s a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.

Whenever I received too much praise, it just didn’t feel right to me – ever.

I’ve been called everything. Gangsta rap. I’ve been called conscious rap. You know, everything. Whoever feels like calling it whatever they want to call it, that’s on them.

Anybody I’m dating, I don’t want them to talk about my music. I don’t talk about my music to them.

Marriage requires searing honesty at all costs. I learned that from my third wife.

I learnt that I must never finish a book with nothing else to do.

One of the hardest things for a teacher to learn is not to try and tell them.

I just try and learn to be a good husband and be a good father before I am a good rock star. That means saying no to certain things that go with the business.

Developing wisdom in community is to constantly learn and relearn that expedience in the short term.

Learn how to smile in the cannibal pot and life will be so much easier.

And then that’s what you have to be. But what I’m looking for is the opportunity to explore what I can do, probing the limits, learning.

Creativity means learning where the rules exist, and then breaking them! Saying, “It’s better this way.” But you have to know the rules in order to break them with any grace.