Prodigy

I couldn't afford to get sick in prison. My sickle cell is no joke, so I couldn't eat poorly or not exercise. And everything in jail is designed to do the exact opposite.

Extreme pain to extreme pleasure has been the story of my entire life.

I just remember the feeling of being dropped from Island and having our hearts broken. Because we were given a chance to put out an album to the world. We got the chance for people to know who we were. We wanted to make our dreams come true and do hip-hop for a living, but we didn't do it right.

It was the camaraderie and the friendships, too, that really drew me to Queensbridge.

When my family first moved to Hempstead in the 1960s, they were one of the first black families. It used to be an all-white neighborhood, but there was white flight when the black people with money started moving in. When I was, like, 13 or 14, Hempstead had just become all black, and the poverty became worse and worse.

When I was locked up, I went through a big personal change with my attitude and spiritual, everything. I went through some major changes locked up.

As you get older, everybody changes. You don't do the stupid stuff that you used to.

Beauty ain't always a little, cute colored flower. Beauty is anything where people be like, 'Damn.'

Obama represents one-world government, a.k.a. Neocolonialism. Presidents don't change anything locally - they only deal with foreign policy.

I don't like new people coming around me. I'm going to really be leery and watch you and take my time before I embrace you.

You can never go back to a time and try to recreate that sound, because that time is done.

I been going to the hospital since I was born, about 10 times a year, for about a week or two each time.