Prodigy

I like a lot of the new artists, but there's only one I can name that stands out to me the most: Kendrick Lamar.

The aggressiveness of it attracted me to hip-hop because I was angry inside. I was an angry kid because of the sickle cell. So I liked the anger in hip-hop. That's what attracted me to it; that's what made me want to do it. It helped me get my aggression out.

Sickle cell was my life before hip-hop. I ain't really have no life - that was it.

From the neighborhoods that we grew up in, we had to learn how to deal with people. How to keep certain people at a distance, how to cut people off completely.

To me, I got a bunch of haters. Mobb Deep - and Prodigy, speaking for myself - I got a bunch of haters.

It took me a while to like Wu-Tang's style.

I was real serious when it came to rapping. I still do, but even more so when I was real young.

I don't like new people coming around me. I'm going to really be leery and watch you and take my time before I embrace you.

You can never go back to a time and try to recreate that sound, because that time is done.

Our first name was the Poetical Prophets before we changed it to Mobb Deep, and when I look back on it now, that was, like, a ill name for us because that is what we really were.

In the beginning, we might have been focused on totally just music and being famous, just wanting to have fame and make hot music, but as we got older, we had to understand that this is a business and that our moves need to be calculated.

We'll never change the fact that we are hardcore hip-hop and we make rebellious hip-hop music, and we're going to keep doing that and progress with our production, progress with our lyrical styles, be creative, and just have fun with it.

Hip-hop basically controls the world through fashion, through music, through language, through culture. It's basically running the world, no matter what anyone wants to think, and that's just the way it is.

I always make hardcore songs, hits for the block.

That's probably the key to our success and our longevity, sticking to our formula and what we do best, the hardcore Mobb Deep sound, rather than chasing trains. But we're always experimenting with the art and the creativity of hip-hop.

Premier came into the picture when were starting to make our own beats and all that.

Hip-hop music was our life.

Premier was one of the first producers that we reached out to, and he was like, 'Hell yeah! Let's get to work.' He was showing us love and giving young, new artists a chance.

My kids know they can't make the same mistakes I've made. They've been through a lot with me always being on the road.

You gotta be careful and just learn from your mistakes.

Don't get 'Return of The Mac' confused as a solo album. That was just a mixtape.

Growing up in bad neighborhoods, you see and experience a lot.

My family had a lot to do with 'My Infamous Life.' They were the inspiration behind me starting to write. I had an interesting family life dating way back, and they did a lot in their lifetime.

There isn't just one black experience out here.

Once I started writing, I realized just how much I really enjoyed it. I was kinda good at it, so I kept at it.

Nas is like King Queensbridge: he's the man out there.

Going to jail is beyond what anyone thinks it is.

We used to cut out of school and go to Coney Island to record songs almost every day.

'Cobra Clutch' was to let the world know we ain't going nowhere. We got the game in the cobra clutch.

Mobb Deep is a street-rap group. We from off the streets.

Jive is a good label, but they're R&B'ed out.

As you get older, everybody changes. You don't do the stupid stuff that you used to.

I love New York. It 'as made me who I am, know what I mean?

I read certain things about history. I don't like fiction. I read about stuff that's real, stuff that's goin' on in the world.

You got to treat Mobb Deep different because our fan base is different. Our fan base is in the 'hood across the world.

I'm not scared to speak my mind and tell you what it is.

I've learned to respect Rick Ross' music.

We gotta keep our sound alive, that dark hip-hop.

I just love his creativity; that's what I'm talking about as far as being unique and creative and different. Kanye is doing it.

The music is just real powerful when Mobb Deep and Nas work together.

If you look at my rap sheet, it's very long.

Going to prison actually helped save my life, I believe.

Intellectuals that read a lot of books might not have been interested in Mobb Deep before 'My Infamous Life,' but now they might go, 'Who are these guys?' and check us out.

Anything that Havoc or I do is always going to point back to Mobb Deep.

When I first went in, I realized there's no green vegetables. They serve, like, spinach once every two weeks. The three meals they serve inmates every day is like slop.

I been going to the hospital since I was born, about 10 times a year, for about a week or two each time.

The sickle-cell got me where doctors said I couldn't play sports, I couldn't overexert myself.

I'm a fan of hip-hop. I'm a fan of rap, so anything new that's happening, I'm hip to it.

I'm a creative person, and I'm gonna be creative, so whoever's upset because of that, that's too bad.

I make all types of music. People wanna put me in a little box, and they get mad when I don't stay in there.