Tupac is definitely an icon. There'll never be another Tupac, so I'm not gonna ever, ever try to fill those shoes. I'm just gonna stay in my lane and be the best me that I can be.

Coming up in America in the '80s and '90s, we were not too far removed from slavery. People forget that.

I remember I used to go school with guys who couldn't afford notebooks, pens, paper: the necessary tools needed in order to survive in school. It's a lot of kids in Gary who are at a disadvantage without that.

Me separating from CTE - I'm extremely happy about that because a lot of guys wrote me off, Jeezy included. He really wrote me off.

I ain't on no major. Everything independent. Either way it goes, I am doing me, and I am doing Freddie Gibbs.

I am the evil seed.

I had a nightmare that I was mopping floors and that this Freddie Gibbs thing was all a dream.

I never took a dollar from Young Jeezy. No advance, nothing.

I have a respect for Young Jeezy. But the reason things didn't work out for me and Young Jeezy was because our approach to the industry... My approach to the industry was a tad bit different than his. I wanted to approach my career a different way; he wanted to go a different way.

I'm not really comfortable with being on songs with cats I don't really know.

I think that with me and Madlib, I was never afraid to really experiment with his tracks and things.

I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.

I like good music, whichever lane it comes out of. As long as it's dope, that is all that matters with me.

I feel like I influence more than just rap.

I'm a common dude.

I'm not trying to act like I'm Superman or better than anybody else in the game. I'm just telling my story, showing my strengths and weaknesses - as a human, as a person, as a man.

I don't like pre-written raps; I think it makes the song better if you listen to the beat first. In a sense, you have to make a marriage with the beat. I ride the beat, hear the flow of the drums, get the melody of my flow, and then from that point, it's a process of what I want to say.

I look at some of my fans at my show, and a lot of them look like they're straight out of a punk rock show. They like what I'm coming across with. I had seen them same thing when I went to this Scarface show, so it lets me know that I'm on the right track.

This is the land of getting over. The land of second or even third chances; the land of doing whatever you have to do by any means necessary in order to fulfill the American Dream.

It's in the American spirit to take advantage of an opportunity.

I'm trying to bring gangster rap back to the forefront, like in the early '90s.

I'm not trying to obey the rules of radio.

Jeezy just recognized my grind, and I jumped on board with him to enhance it. Artistically, we're in the same mind frame. We come from very similar backgrounds - poverty. That's something that we can both relate to, something that we can convey in our music.

After I got dropped by Interscope, I knew in my heart that I had to fight back some way or not rap at all. I just took it upon myself to get myself where I needed to be.

I've been engulfed in sports since I was a 2-year-old; I picked up any kind of ball - a basketball, baseball, football - I just loved to play something. I loved the energy of being in arenas and watching the game on TV.

Stuart Scott was a hero.

I just want to put my stamp on all kinds of music. Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street-based, street-oriented.

I'm like LeBron, man. I'm like a smaller LeBron. That's why I'm not in the NBA. If I had about five, six more inches, I'd be in the league.

I'm just glad we get to see old records being broken. That's what sports is all about.

I started hustling in early adolescence.

I never write a song before I get the track because I just feel that I have to make a marriage with that track with my raps. And if it's something that's already there, it ain't gone really fit, I don't think.

Gary is a old factory town right outside Chicago. From my standpoint, my family migrated there in the '50s and '60s from Mississippi - Sardis, Mississippi - shout out to Sardis, Mississippi. My family migrated there just like a lot of black families in that area: they migrated there to get jobs, to get those factory jobs, that steel mill job.

The things I rap about are 100 percent real. But at the same time, I don't rap about those things to tear my city down. I give you the reality of what it is and what I been through and how it is living in those conditions in Gary, Ind.

I'm so hands-on and involved in my own music that I feel like if I put the same effort into another artist, then I can definitely cultivate something great.

If you say your product is the best, back that up.

I'd be quiet as a mouse if I didn't have the correct feeling about my music. I feel like I'm able to talk about it and say I'm one of the best because I think I got the music to back that up. I got the live show to back that up. That's all that matters.

Everything don't work out for the best. You have to use a lot of those things as lessons in order to build yourself up.

I always want everything I do to be somewhat cinematic. I don't want to be the rapper that'll just post up and shoot a video anywhere with no real meaning to it.

I think that 'Pinata' album is going to stand the test of time. It's going to be a moment in hip-hop, whether people know it or not. It's nothing else like that in rap. It's going to forever hold its place.

I always feel like the underdog.

I can do a whole project with Madlib and turn around and do a record with Gucci Mane. Gucci Mane, E-40, and Black Thought on the same record. I like all those rappers, so why can't I work with them in some type of capacity? It just speaks to my versatility. I don't just listen to one type of rap. I listen to all of it so I can make all of it.

I feel like some artists need a record label, and some don't.

Gary is a really impoverished town; it's in industrial decay. There's low employment and things of that nature.

I don't ever really plan my sets. I just get out there and feel the energy of the crowd.

I wanted to be in the NBA. I wanted to be in the NFL.

I grew up on N.W.A., Geto Boys. My dad was listening to that.

I wanted to be a gangsta from birth, not because of the music but moreso what I was seeing, what my uncles were doing. I was just fascinated with the street lifestyle from a young age.

I'm an educated individual.

Different rappers got different talents. It's like X-Men.

I want to be one of the most versatile rappers in the game.