I grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the time I was growing up with my father - before it was gentrified - it was a very rough neighborhood. He felt that if I got into or started embracing the rap culture, I would be one step closer to being on the streets.

If you put the collections together, whether it's Rick Owens, Alexander Wang, or whomever, sometimes they do streetwear, but they're never called that. They're always called 'sportswear' or 'high-end' or 'luxury.' I feel like I'm tossed into that streetwear category so that I don't exist in this space.

I was going to college on a full scholarship. I graduated summa cum laude. I was always on the dean's list. I was never a kid that started any kind of trouble.

I played baseball, was on the basketball team in high school, did crew at Hofstra, and randomly played ultimate frisbee, too. But none of the organized teams I was on were anywhere near as competitive as the games on the street.

Obviously, I care about the kids. Family, all that sort of stuff. But really, I don't care about life, don't care about death. Nothing. That's the kind of man you are dealing with. That's why I can't be beaten.

I'm the glue that keeps it all together. I'm the nucleus of an entertainment family. My day-to-day is making decisions to keep life above water.

In the Freudian age, parents say to their children, 'Don't be defensive,' meaning, 'You have no argument,' but I was born in the age of Rommel, when defense was considered an honorable thing.

My father worked for IBM. My mother raised us kids. There were six of us, and a couple of extra foster kids at any given time.