Somalis really are very musically sophisticated, and they're about their own thing.

I am one of those people that's never been really cynical about life, you know.

It's not really that I'm interested in filmmaking. I'm interested in the instrument of it, you know.

I wasn't making music consciously when I was younger. I was a musician, but that has its own stigmas. Anywhere on the planet, it's one of the more undervalued positions.

I'm an optimist about other people. I'm not an optimist about myself.

The problem is that rap is so often a caricature of its own image. Nobody comes to the table with the seriousness of the effect that it can have; nobody is prepared for that.