Black people are not a monolith. Black people have different thoughts. And sometimes people just need to hear the harsh truth - even myself. But you can't manufacture a hard truth and place it on somebody. When Kanye says slavery was a choice, that's not a harsh truth.

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Kendrick Lamar is 10-times the rapper I am, but I just feel I'm the best at getting my own point across.

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I'm not some patriot. I didn't have some yearning to defend my country or anything. I was poor.

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Either people cling to the past and refuse to advance their ways, or they're always looking to future and not appreciating what's in front of them right now.

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I don't think any other place puts out music with no promise of success and still works like Baltimore.

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The intention behind 'Prone!' was to make a punk song with no instruments.

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I don't rely on the strength of my image.

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On 'Black Ben Carson,' I had strict no melody thing. I wanted straight, raw, rugged noise music.

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The first thing I ever put on the Internet was actually a beat tape, but the first thing I ever put on where I was rapping was called 'Generation Y,' and it was hella political.

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The first time I ever went to Texas was on a bus with curtains draped over the windows. I just joined the military and got shipped off to basic training in San Antonio.

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In my opinion, the most dangerous thing an artist can do in this day and age is not embrace the present.

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I saw Fear perform live at a young age, so I guess you could say I draw from that same energy.

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My dad used to play old dancehall records - Cutty Ranks, Ranking Dread, Michael Prophet, these type of dudes.

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If Kanye was not in the equation, I literally wouldn't even be here. His music pushed hip-hop - the man is a master at taking a complex idea and presenting it in a way that is accessible for everyone.

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When I released 'Veteran' and the reception was good, it was the first time I ever worked really hard on something and had that hard work reciprocated back to me.

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America to me is where I grew up: in Brooklyn, around other black and Latino people who helped and loved each other. I just want to show people that America doesn't have to be this 'I'm in the NRA, blah blah blah' type of place.

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I've been watching anime for a minute, so I know like real weird deep anime that people probably don't care about.

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So much of rap sounds the same, and that's okay, but that means some people want something that can be the complete opposite too.

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Bjork for sure. Definitely, I would like to do like something with Tommy Genesis, too. There's a lot of people actually.

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If I wasn't making music I'd still be listening to it and talking about it. That's why I'm able to chill with Denzel Curry and then Jeff Tweedy, because the thing that's linking us is music.

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Everyone has a little niche in rap, and I just wanted to carve a piece out of it for myself.

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