We've always been a band that intentionally transcended race and age.

I'll read a book. I'll watch a documentary or a film or whatever. I'll go to an art exhibit and just try and open myself to influence.

For me, I'm a super private person.

By the time I was, you know, 16 years old, I had done a lot of growing up.

The Roots - we signed our first record deal when I was about 19 years old.

I want to be at the top of my game.

I strive for improvement. want to be a master of my craft.

I got a family to take care of and kids to feed. That's my motivation, this is my job.

I feel like I've been around for such a long time, as a writer and as an artist, that I need to sort of speak to the way that my perception of the world has sort of changed.

I think the true artist - musician, dancer, writer, actor - a true artist is able to sort of articulate pain and tragedy, in a way that sort of expresses what the listener or the beholder may have been feeling but was less able to communicate.

Nah, I don't feel overlooked, underappreciated, or none of that because it's a short list of artists, past and present, that I kind of have respect for. And in all of those situations, the admiration and respect is mutual.

Some of my favorites are the classics like 'What They Do,' 'Proceed,' 'You Got Me,' and 'Silent Treatment.'

I'm in great company and some may say that the underexposure has added to my allure and the staying power of me as a MC and The Roots as a band.

The Roots brand is like the Lipton of hip-hop, so to speak.

The most profound memory I have from my childhood is burning down my house at 6 years old.

I grew up in Mount Airy, a middle-class enclave in the Northwestern area of Philadelphia.

I made the mistake of going to a barber who was not from Philly, and let's just say, I would never do that again.

I was raised as a Muslim.

Lots of people are saying that I shut down mumble rap in one 10-minute setting. But that wasn't my intention, because mumble rap - if we go back - that's something I invented.

There are some millennial artists that I totally get and understand, and I know what they're talking about. People who I've worked with and who I'd like to work with. But there's a whole element of artists that I can't explain what they're talking about.

I mean, I'm no superhero.

When I was coming up, a freestyle wasn't a freestyle unless everything was completely improvised, in-the-moment and right there, and you had to incorporate various elements of what was going on in the room on the day.

Something that is funny, that I use sometimes if I'm doing comedy, is the fact that I'm now often mistaken for the rapper Rick Ross. And I don't know that I've ever corrected anyone - like I've never said, 'No no, I'm not Rick Ross, I'm Black Thought from The Roots.'

I feel like Black Thought is a name that has so much meaning and depth, not only to me but to my fans, that it's something that I wanted to hold onto a little bit tighter.