My mom was born in Korea - Seoul, Korea, during the '50s, '51. She was abandoned; her and my uncle were abandoned. My grandfather was a Seabee and adopted my mom and my uncle, and brought them to Compton in the '50s. That's where she was raised.

I tell people a lot of times, if you want to be a part of something, you never know, you kind of just have to be around. A lot of people don't really have the patience for it, and they don't stick around. Dre and I are still working together, and we have plenty of music for the future.

I didn't always take myself that seriously. Image-wise, I was somewhat of a jokester.

When the pastor's up there, they do this thing called looping. They are literally riffing and spitting in the key of the organ. When looping, you're in key, you're in a rhythm, you're in a pocket, and that's where James Brown was pulling from, and so that's where I'm pulling from. The only difference is I'm coming at it under hip-hop.

I'd been watching documentaries about early rock where white artists took 'race records' from blues and soul musicians to achieve mass appeal. I wanted to flip that and do an EP covering only white artists.

As an artist, you're taking your experiences and placing them into your art. So the more experiences you have, the richer your art and more people can relate to it.