“So from Jazz, Blues, R&B, Soul, Classical and Country music, Hip Hop has introduced us to a little bit of everything.”

Using what you have always enhances what’s to come no matter if it’s an album, song, artwork or whatever.

I just sing the song and I sing it with conviction, meaning and I get into the mood of every song I do no matter how much time I have in between.

You just do you like when you’re doing any other song. It’s nothing different. Some people are like “How’s it like working with Kendrick Lamar?” and really, it’s like working with anyone else that I work with.

R&B is everything. Hip Hop, Soul, Gospel and Classical Blues are everything. All of that makes sense in BJ The Chicago Kid and what we do.

I embrace everybody, but you work everybody and each song at a time to who it is for. I believe that’s how you build a palace. You build a palace one block at a time and then you’ll have what you want. That’s how it goes.

I thank God for Hip Hop because Marvin Gaye didn’t have that and he was able to be that dope. For us to have that and more, I feel like it is up to us to be as dope as we can possibly be.

I’ve got some cool features with some cool people coming out but I can’t speak on it right now.

Hip Hop has introduced us to a lot of genres that we probably wouldn’t even listen to in our own homes from our parents.

I don’t really concentrate on Urban AC or whatever. I don’t concentrate on genres or how people section off songs for radio.

There’s no unicorns that pop out the ceiling and no glitter that pops out of my pocket. It’s just regular people in the studio doing what we do.

I’m part of this show called “Shots Fired” that is premiering on FOX. It’s right after the Super Bowl. It’s a pretty incredible show. I’m pretty much the voice of the show, so the voice of the opening credit record and the songs in between is pretty much my voice.

A lot of people don’t understand the building phase. They don’t have the blueprint, but we do. With us having the blueprint and knowing what we want to build, it’s not how it’s supposed to be built, but what we want to build. I think it makes everything easy for us to stay focus and have that tunnel vision.

Using what you have is always creates more opportunities for the future.

I just make music from my soul and let it be.

Sawed off shotgun, hand on the pump Left hand on a forty, puffin’ on a blunt Pumped my shotgun, niggas didn’t jump… Lala la la lala la laaaa

There’s certainly a lot of noise in the hip-hop world now [that] I don’t pay active attention to, but to the extent that I represent some flavor of what’s happening in hip-hop – it’s subconscious.

I think the hip-hop purists are purists through and through. They’re here to criticize all of us. That’s just how it is. We as MC’s criticize each other. That’s the nature of hip-hop.

How you know where I’m at when you haven’t been where I’ve been? Understand where I’m coming from?

As far as hip-hop is concerned, I’m no expert and rarely think consciously about how I “represent” hip-hop.

Real slow hits from the bong… Make me feel like Cheech, And I’m kickin’ it with Chong.

Stillmatic’ is the rebirth of ‘Illmatic,’ my first debut album to come out in 1994. ‘Stillmatic’ is me coming full circle in my career and with everything, and just bringing pure hip-hop back.

Wherever I go, I bring the culture with me, so that they can understand that it’s attainable. I didn’t do it any other way than through hip-hop.