When I'm writing, I'm thinking about how the songs are going to play live. Fifty bars of rap don't translate onstage. No matter how potent the music, you lose the crowd. They want a hook; they want to sing your stuff back to you.

It's more positional play now. Before, if you got beat, your first instinct was to grab and hook and in most cases, you were allowed to get away with that, especially when you were short-handed. Now, if you do that, they call it, and you're down five on three. Your body position has to be a lot better.

You know, there are artists who are 35 and up that still make rap and that still works for them. I don't know if I want to be that guy.

I expect if you're a professional public speaker, you probably wouldn't want to go onstage and sing and play drums.

I really like Caravan Palace's electro swing stuff. They incorporate the electronic, but when you see them live, they're all on stage playing live music. They're all playing their instruments. They drop these beats with the DJs that are so incredible.

There were people who incorporated melody before me, but I would deem myself the first person to successfully rap and sing.