“I am recognizing that the voice inside my head Is urging me to be myself, but never follow someone else Because opinions are like voices, we all have a different kind.”

Well Vin says that there’s something behind all this, right? Some evil force of doom or whatever? Well, if I were said force of doom, then I certainly wouldn’t have used my powers to turn the land black. It just lacks flair. Red. Now, that would be an interesting color.

There’s divinity within because we come from the divine, A force that’s not seen, but you feel it every time: When the wind blows, and the world turns, And the rain drops, and the baby cries, And the bird flies, and the ground quake, And the stars gleam.

You can tell how good a filmmaker is if you can turn the sound down but you can still feel the story.

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.

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.