“I grew up in that age, and it was memorable. But I’m down with all of it. Chuck D or Danny Brown? I feel comfortable with all of them. Word up, kid! Word up, man!”

I though it’d be an easy way for people to see and differentiate between characters, sorta like when an actor gains weight for a role.

I think – a lot of times in hip-hop, especially – artists get kind of pigeonholed into being ‘the guy,’ and it’s kind of limiting in a way.

Nobody knows me – I’m incognito. It’s all new, all fun.

I make hip-hop, but use Doom as a character to convey stories that a normal dude can’t.

Ever since third grade, I had a notebook and was putting together words just for fun.

Everybody nowadays rhymes, but out of the people that really, really do it well, it’s still a small community of artists.

I’m always trying to show versatility. I’m juggling, and I’m flipping fire, and I’m chewing gum and rhyming at the same time… on a unicycle, while playing the drums.

I’m back – now watch this!’ It all boils down to the music. The mask is a slight theme for people to enjoy, and it adds mystery.

The ‘Doom’ thing is to be able to come at things with a different point of view. I decided the mask would just add to the mystique of the character as well as make Doom stand out.

I might as well use it to control the story. So why not do something like throw a mask on?

I liked being able to speak to somebody and throw it back and forth, and they can’t predict what you’re going to say next.

Being older now, grown, I’m like, ‘What do we really do that’s fun?’ I’m kind of corny when you think about it. What could I rhyme about? Let me see, um, I gotta pay the rent today.

I spent 35 years growing up in the U.S., and it had its ups and downs.

I liked different etymologies, different slang that came out in different eras. Different languages. Different dialects.

Doom is a classic supervillain, akin to the Phantom of the Opera. It’s not about revenge so much as, like.

I’m doing the shows. The stage is my canvas; I’ll put whatever up there for the visible eye.

Everything that goes up must come down. But there comes a time when not everything that’s down can come up.

I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me – shapes and ideas so near to me – so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.

Coming down the 18th, your heart’s pounding, and the hair is sticking straight up on your arms – there’s no feeling like it.

We have a big appetite for putting people down but, at the heart of everyone, there’s enough room for all of us to succeed.

My momma didn’t clean up floors so I could be a thug… so I could wear my pants down.

Deep down, the US, with its space, its technological refinement, its bluff good conscience, even in those spaces which it opens up for simulation, is the only remaining primitive society.

WWE asked me to be in the Hall of Fame, and I turned it down. You know why? They put Pete Rose in the wrestling Hall of Fame. This guy can’t even get into his own Hall of Fame.

If you get knocked down – setbacks in life, like applying for a job if they don’t hire you – keep trying, keep getting up, keep doing it.