I want to be a figure for prison reform. I think that the criminal justice system is rotten.

People are afraid, and when people are afraid, when their pie is shrinking, they look for somebody to hate. They look for somebody to blame. And a real leader speaks to anxiety and to fear and allays those fears, assuages anxiety.

You have to have a canon so the next generation can come along and explode it.

Censorship is to art as lynching is to justice.

I never learn anything talking. I only learn things when I ask questions.

Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it's people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.

The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you're making a mistake but let you go on with it, that's when it ruins your mind state as an artist.

My mom's one of 13 siblings, and they all got six kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton.

I'm Machiavelli's offspring, I'm the king of New York, king of the coast, one hand, I juggle them both.

Black and brown pride have been taught in my household for a long time.

I used to consider the listener. But now I'm in a space where, if I'm not inspired, I can't really do the music. I can't feel it.

I had to come from something, come from a place that was negative and positive but the majority of it is a negative place.

Before finding music, I didn't have too many aspirations. I wanted to hang out, make a little money from whatever I had to do.

The worst part of success is, to me, adapting to it. It's scary.

I don't really believe in the type of pressure that people are wanting to put on the type of music that I make.

I always felt like there was a certain standard of music that I had to do from the beginning, even when I didn't have the recognition that I have now.

People are used to music that justifies street culture but something that's not touched on is why these kids act the way they act, live the way they live.

I'm just writing, writing, writing. I keep these tablets on me until I'm inspired to go back in and make the music. I never take a break from my pen, because I pride myself on that.

I'm putting out this free music, constantly putting it out.

I knew I was blessed with a gift of having both parents.

My folks ain't graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family - and I come from a big family.

My pops and my mom started playing Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers and all these people, but at the same time, they always had Snoop on right behind it in the same mix.

In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.

When I ask OGs why there's so much division in the streets, nobody never really knows. But you know one thing that everybody always mention? A woman.