“It was a weird mix of emotions. One day, your best friend could be killed. The day before, you could be celebrating him getting a brand-new bike.”

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…

The burden of poverty isn’t just that you don’t always have the things you need: it’s the feeling of being embarrassed every day of your life, and you’d do anything to lift that burden.

I was a really good student. In the sixth grade, I was reading at a twelfth grade reading level. But I got bored.

Poor people don’t like talking about poverty because even though they might live in the projects surrounded by other poor people and have, like, ten dollars in the bank they don’t like to think of themselves as poor.

If just the presence of Tidal causes other companies to have better pay structure or to pay more attention to it moving forward, then we’ve been successful in one way. So we don’t really view them as competitors. As the tide rises, all the boats rise.

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.

I’m just going to make the music I love to make, and I’m going to mature with my music.

It’s hilarious a lot of times. You have a conversation with someone, and he’s like, ‘You speak so well!’ I’m like, ‘What do you mean? Do you understand that’s an insult?

Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.

I came into this music business at 26 years old. I was a fully developed man at that point. At that age, I didn’t have anything to prove.

I am against discrimination of any kind, but if I make snap judgments, no matter who it’s towards, aren’t I committing the same sin as someone who profiles?

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

Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama’s running so we all can fly.

People are intermingling, hanging out, having fun, enjoying the same music. Hip-hop is not just in the Bronx anymore. It’s worldwide. Everywhere you go, people are listening to hip-hop and partying together. Hip-hop has done that.

New York – I’m connected. This is my core. I feel like if I’m not connected to New York, then I don’t even know what to do with myself.

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?

Make your decisions promptly. It is better to act quickly even though your tactics are not the best.

It is best to know the worst at once.

Be patient. Be sincere. Be humble. Be the best version of you.

I felt like I had kind of played it out, and I wanted to see what was next, and then came Mythbusters.

The best doctor is the one you run to and can’t find.

We can learn from IBM’s successful history that you don’t have to have the best product to become number one.

Consistently making that best choice will add up to living your best life. Your health is the key to that.

Love transforms us in the best of ways, allowing us only to look back on a memory of our former self.