If you take a song like 'We Will, We Will Rock You,' 'You got blood on your face... ' - he's rhyming on that! And if you take the lyrics out of that song, you get a hip-hop beat. It's a rock song, though. So it's not out of my element for me to get with Black Lips.

Hip-hop became the voice of rebellion and the youth, as rock music did in the '60s.

A lot of artists think that to be current, you have to follow what's out there and do something that's so unlike what you normally do. It can work, but it doesn't if you chase it.

Normally when I do an album, I have a concept behind it.

I wasn't raised a vegetarian. I wish I was, though. I mean, that's really the best way to go. I just learned at a young age and stopped eating some things.

I don't knock material rappers, but let me hear it in a different way. How many songs do I have to hear about rims on a car? It's ridiculous. There's no substance. It's a hollow shell.

There were certain things that grabbed my interest, such as photosynthesis, such as us living off plants and plants living off us. You look at everything in that light - so if I'm looking at ice cubes, I might start thinking about absolute zero, or Fahrenheit and Celsius. There's so much that can make me think about science.

I would go to an aunt's house, and she would let me play music, and she had 'The Last Poets' album. At that time, albums didn't have explicit stickers on them, so some of the songs had profanity on them, and I was moved by that. I would listen to those songs, to the flow, and I'd balance it back and forth with the nursery stuff I had.

Rap - it's a childhood passion. Writing rhymes, it's something that I was doing before rap records even existed. And I will continue to write until I can't write anymore.

It's always been about shelf life. Long-term parking, not short-term. That's why I take the time that I do when I write.

I usually do about five drafts per rhyme for each song.

Learn all you can learn. Never stop learning.

There's no set way to do anything. Sometimes you have to go outside the box; sometimes you can do things the standard way. Like, you don't have to have a beat to write a song: sometimes you can write lyrics without the music.

Before hip-hop existed, we were listening to soul songs from the '70s. I grew up with Motown, Elton John, and the Beatles. To me, that's good music.

I don't eat meat - chicken, fish, none of that. I eat a lot of vegetable sandwiches, like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, whatever I can put on bread with mayo and eat, y'know.

I had a few DJs in my neighbourhood that would play music in the streets. There was no hip-hop yet; there were just DJs that were playing disco, funk, and pop music, and we would gather round, go to the parks, and dance and enjoy ourselves.

Our love of kung fu goes back to the Bruce Lee days in the 1970s. Outside the action, we loved the interesting, heartfelt stories and the dialogue. It was RZA's idea to draw all that in there as samples.

I remember the first 45 record I bought. It was called 'A Dog a Donut'; it was a breakbeat. Actually, I think I bought two at one time, and the other one was 'Dance to the Drummer's Beat.' Those are breakbeats. I paid a dollar for it, for each one. Your average producer or DJ would know who came out with those.

Emceeing has always been about making the most intellectual, most creative, wittiest rhyme as possible regardless of any subject. It was always about bringing the best out of yourself.

One of the basic principles when you dealing with mathematics and Islam: Seek knowledge.

It's gonna sound so boring to most people. There have been times when I've been told, 'Oh, you're doing an album about physics? I hope it's not boring.' They don't get the idea. Because rappers are so one-dimensional, so narrow-minded, it comes off corny.

Live a life full of humility, gratitude, intellectual curiosity, and never stop learning.

Most of my music videos were made for under $200.

I get offers to do huge-budget music videos with big production companies all the time, but I have no interest.