When I started making music, I was so heavy into the hyphy movement. That's something you only know so much about if you were right there living in it, submerged in the culture.

You have an entire generation of kids who grew up with the idea that music is something that you can download for free.

Word of mouth is the most valuable form of marketing, but you can't buy it. You can only deliver it. And you have to really deliver.

I just kept telling myself that ultimately, the money that my grandparents had put away to go into my college fund, that they were investing for me to go to school and get this education, it had to be worth something.

I always thought that one day I would be somebody. I would be successful in music, and I would have fans that cared about my music. At the same time, I really feel like an ordinary guy; I have been an ordinary guy forever.

'Runaround Sue' was a big record for me, as well as the music video for it.