Nas really introduced the world and a lot of people to me - that was ideal as far as me first coming in.

I always wanted to do something I knew I could love to wake up and do every day, and rap was just second nature to me, growing up in Harlem. I never really had to try.

Growing up in Harlem, I was always in the parks playing ball.

When I'm out of town, I always try to get some readings or some type of new information to where I'm learning more about Islam, just to become the best Muslim I can become.

It's a very unpleasant topic. But we are in an outright war against jihadist Islamic fascism. And this war is, is, I think, metastasizing, almost far quicker than governments can handle it... We have Boko Haram and other groups that will eventually partner with ISIS in this global war.

The Israelis and the Palestinians don't know each other. They live right there, but they've become strangers. And it makes it much more difficult to make peace with a person you really don't know, and that's an obstacle in itself.

There are those who believe we have need of more literature, of a large international publishing house, of a great peace newspaper, or the like. I am rather skeptical about this idea.

My mother always used to say, 'There is no path to peace. Peace is the path.'