I was djing before I was rapping. I was calling myself Mike Geronimo and spelling it like Mike but he was just like spell it M-i-c. I was like that's ill cuz it stands out.

I'm just the type of person that realizes that someone is always going to have something to say so I could care less about it.

When I did The Natural that album was done from the perspective of a kid from Queens that was 19-20 years old who doesn't know that much about the industry.

The Gods have a lesson that tells you to build and destroy and that's the cycle of life. Things have to be destroyed and then it has to be rebuilt. I think rap always go through cycles where it appears that it's destroying itself but it's actually purging itself and after it purges itself it comes into another state of being.

I got a little criticism for working with Puff [Daddy] and I got some criticism for doing the special but you have to weigh the good with the bad. I got more of a good response than bad when I did those two things.

I'm at a point where I let my mind go with flow of the music I'm making and it's not interrupted by me trying to please everybody.

Things happen and you live and you learn.

Be mindful of everything going on around you and always be on point but don't be so on point that you lose that ability to be what it was that got you out there.

I look at Large Professor as a big influence. I grew up with him and being able to grow up with him enabled me to meet Nas, Busta, Q-Tip and all these people I looked up to at the time. Even Large himself. He was a good friend but at the same time he was definitely someone I looked up to.

As an artist when you come into [hip hop] you don't know nothing really. You just know what you do and it's free of the influences of money, power and all these other things people learn about the further they get into it.

I hope everyone continues to ride with me the way they have done. I could never repay you because each and every one of you changed my life.

I'm human so I'd be lying if I said that it's not times where you sit back like damn all these niggas is poppin what's up?

Life ain't complicated unless you complicate it.

Hip hop is kinda funny because the further you get into it the more at risk you are.

I just make [music] for the people that always enjoyed hearing from me. I make it for people that enjoy the energy of rap music or a good rhyme. I do it for the people I see everyday, not the Hollywood ass people, the normal people.

It could be the old man I see at the store or the chick I see walking down the block. Normal people that are everywhere you go. That's who I make records for and I don't expect all of them to give me pay $11.99 to hear my record.

When I do things with people it's not with the hopes of them coming back because that would be a selfish reason for me to do anything.