I wasn't altered by the things that come with success but as you go about it those things play a part. You have twenty million people in your ear and they all trying to tell you which way to go. Then you have BDS, videos, and all this stuff calling you that you start to analyze because you're constantly around it and everybody is looking at these numbers.
Rap is purging itself from the things it didn't need and it's allowing the younger dudes to come up. With that being said you're always going to need people from that golden era.
The Gods have a lesson that tells you to build and destroy and that's the cycle of life. Things have to be destroyed and then it has to be rebuilt. I think rap always go through cycles where it appears that it's destroying itself but it's actually purging itself and after it purges itself it comes into another state of being.
Be true to yourself and as long as you can look back and be happy with what you've done stay that way.
Things happen and you live and you learn.
I got a little criticism for working with Puff [Daddy] and I got some criticism for doing the special but you have to weigh the good with the bad. I got more of a good response than bad when I did those two things.
I'm just the type of person that realizes that someone is always going to have something to say so I could care less about it.
When I did The Natural that album was done from the perspective of a kid from Queens that was 19-20 years old who doesn't know that much about the industry.
As an artist when you come into [hip hop] you don't know nothing really. You just know what you do and it's free of the influences of money, power and all these other things people learn about the further they get into it.
Hip hop is kinda funny because the further you get into it the more at risk you are.
I don't regret anything that I ever did. You just look back at things and you either learn from them or get what you can from them but I wouldn't change what I did.
Be mindful of everything going on around you and always be on point but don't be so on point that you lose that ability to be what it was that got you out there.
I hope everyone continues to ride with me the way they have done. I could never repay you because each and every one of you changed my life.
I would do the same thing over again because whatever I did was meant for me to do, you dig what I'm saying? If it wasn't meant for me to do that show and work with Puff [Daddy]then it wouldn't have ever occurred.
The way I think it all went down was MTV was doing a special on people and my publicist heard about it.It was a good thing though. People ask me about that all the time, all over the world. Sometimes I feel I'm more known for that then for rapping.
I look at Large Professor as a big influence. I grew up with him and being able to grow up with him enabled me to meet Nas, Busta, Q-Tip and all these people I looked up to at the time. Even Large himself. He was a good friend but at the same time he was definitely someone I looked up to.
I get hit everyday with people everyday saying I remember this record from that, this changed my life or this record was playing when this happened so I'm thankful for that. On the other side I look at it like I got to do so many things in life I never thought I'd be able to do so who am I to complain about what position I'm in or not in. I gotta be thankful for everything that occurred in my career. That's how I look at it.
Everybody plays their part in this world and not all parts are the same. So I look at it like whatever I was put here to do that's what the outcome is.
Maybe my records might make the next Ja Rule or Jay-Z want to rap.
I don't see everybody as much as I used to because as individuals everybody is busy but none of the relationships have changed.
I could look in everyone's faces and see them reflecting on how much time has passed and all the things we went through.
It used to be when a good record was about to drop you heard it out of every car and every kid with a boom box was playing it 3-4 weeks before it came out. Now it's not like that you just see ipods left and right and there's no anticipation factor. I have yet to see something drop with the anticipation that Illmatic had or that Ready 2 Die and Cuban Linx had. Those records had real anticipation factors.
Hip Hop has its ups and downs but I'm gonna do my best to not necessarily bring that back but just remind people what they are forgetting about.
I was djing before I was rapping. I was calling myself Mike Geronimo and spelling it like Mike but he was just like spell it M-i-c. I was like that's ill cuz it stands out.
I went to acting school for like a year and ended up doing voiceovers and stuff. I could have done a lot more with it but at the time I really wasn't taking it seriously.
