With time, everything changes. I know I'm not the same person who I used to be. I totally get that.
Mannie Fresh
My dad is my biggest fan.
What made '400 Degreez' great is that Juvenile already had those raps. He already knew them. It was something that he knew every one of those raps.
With Hurricane Katrina and all that kind of stuff happening, you needed somebody to rally for your city, to tell that story. Since Hurricane Katrina, we didn't really have nobody that said, 'I'm gonna tell New Orleans' story, and I'm gonna stick to New Orleans.'
I remember that my dad worked on cars from the '70s and '80s, and that's where my love came from: appreciating - even if it was a piece of crap - how much he loved American muscle.
The streets buy records, but they don't really buy records in incredible numbers.
Even before anybody liked the 808, Mannie Fresh was on the 808.
I've always found some way to kind of incorporate second-line music in what I did.
There's been enough building of fences with labels trying to categorize artists, limiting artists' ability to be themselves.
If you know Down South production, Roland 808 is in almost everything.
'Macbeth' is one of those books that demand all of your attention.
I've always had good connections with cars and always knew how to fix them, so I didn't have trouble with breakdowns.
Flow Tribe is a great bunch of New Orleans guys who have that funkiness to them.
I can see how paperwork and foolishness can destroy something.
The whole '400 Degreez' album was inspired by what Outkast was doing, Organized Noize. That was what I was listening to around that time.
I'm saying nobody's got the guts to be a J. Cole. Nobody's got the guts to be a Kendrick Lamar. We need more of them... Everybody wants to go the easy route.
When a movie based on a book comes out, people always say that the book is always better than the movie. So I'm always interested in reading the book, too.
I thank God I've never burned no bridges with nobody, and when it's time for me to call in my favors, they're coming.
Music is all I know.
That's what I'm tryin' to achieve. I want to be a heavyweight in this game, and I'm tryin' to get the big money. By the same token, the title 'Big Money Heavyweight' applies to everybody in the world. That's what everybody's tryin' to achieve.
The Cash Money sound pretty much changed the era. It kind of put the business into rap. It was like, 'Get your money, dude. This is a billion dollar business.'
I always say that I'm a hip-hop fan, and I'm definitely a Drake fan.
'Chopper City in the Ghetto,' real talk, it's what changed Cash Money from a Bounce label to a Rap label.
For those from my era, my age, that 2Pac vs. Biggie war will go on forever about who is the greatest. But I was more of a Biggie dude.
I don't bash Cash Money, Birdman, or none of them.
I've got different drum machines that I use for different things, but I think the older ones are always the best when it comes down to getting that 808 bass.
I've had some bad business lessons and learned some things. It's not always about going platinum. So long as I know who is buying my records and I generate revenue that's mine, then it's cool.
B.I.G. was like the Alfred Hitchcock of rap. Like, this dude's story form was so nuts.
The thing about Big Tymers was if they said they had it, they had it.
There are so many talented people that are on G.O.O.D. Music that it's nuts.
It's weird being a DJ and you have a playlist of your own songs that you could hold it down for an hour.
With Dr. Dre, he's a perfectionist. A lot of people ask why 'Detox' is taking so long. It's because Dre is somebody that is trying to top what he's done. Will he do it? I don't know if he ever will, but I respect that he's trying to do so. You have to wait for a masterpiece.
I'm doing bass trap; I'm doing EDM songs.
I knew Kanye way before he was signed.
To me, Def Jam put my career on hold. I was used to making 13-14 songs a year, and they trickled that down to nothing.
When I know it's like a bass song, I gotta go with my SP-1200.
I always felt like the trumpet or trombone player was always the coolest dude in the room.
'Chopper City in the Ghetto' - a lot of it was B.G.'s real story.
I see how attorneys are, and nobody is really on your side. It's about money. The attorney is not chasing after your money; he's chasing after his fee.
You had Cash Money: that was just the flashy dudes. Like I said, you had different genres of rap, and we were just one of them. So that's how we fit in. What makes it all confusing - and this is where it's the gift and the curse - we never set out for hip-hop to turn into just something flashy. That was just our thing. It wasn't everybody's thing.
There will never be another Biggie ever again.
The cool thing about G.O.O.D. Music is it's a bunch of great ideas, and I'm one of those ideas.
I'm too old to be making dis songs.
When 'And Then What' was made, Jeezy already had a street appeal, but 'And Then What' put him on the national appeal.
Hey, you gotta love a gangsta girl. Even the suburban and preppy girls wanna be gangsta girls. That's the whole gimmick to it. Everybody wants to be a gangsta girl.
I did albums for Cash Money. I didn't do singles - I did whole albums for Cash Money - and at the end of the day, I'm saying I wasn't paid for albums, so its like you're doing 10 songs, and somebody pays you for 1.
We recorded 'Chopper City in the Ghetto' in a house that we was living in.
The reason that I like 'Game of Thrones' is because it's based on all these royal families. And it's cutthroat - just like hip-hop. It's all about positioning and figuring out who's going to last.
I get most of my reading done whenever I'm in the airport waiting on a flight, have some time to kill, and I have a book with me.
New Orleans just embraces people who love music.
