Wale

I'm fortunate enough to be living my dreams and a lot of other peoples' dreams.

My job is to inspire the people, to be on top of my game and push my culture forward.

Not everybody is a great rapper; not everybody lives for the art of lyricism.

Every artist is supposed to get emotional. You're painting pictures of emotions.

I never had money; I like nice things, but I don't let that run my life. At the same time, I have to let something drive me... so now I let the money drive me.

I've become a workaholic. When the shows slow down and there's no press and I can get my time to myself in the studio with my music, I get into this zone, man. I enter this incredible space where I'm...

If someone doesn't have a reason to not like you in America, they talk politics or religion. Then they get to hate you and we get to be enemies.

I don't want to be one of those guys that you see who made $4 million, invested $3.5 million, and now you work at Wendy's.

We lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Northwest D.C. I was essentially raised by a Panamanian man and a Jamaican woman. That's why I have such a fascination with Jamaican food.

Mix-tapes are something that have been going on for a while. They've been pretty important to hip-hop for the past 10 years. It's the way we advertise our music to the public for free.