Let The Music Diffuse All The Tension.

I Wanted To Say What Wasn't Being Said. I Wanted To Give People A Real Story. I Wanted People To Know People Like Me Exist In The World.

When I Made Illmatic, I Was Trying To Make The Perfect Album. It Comes From The Days Of Wild Style. I Was Trying To Make You Experience My Life. I Wanted You To Look At Hip-hop Differently. I Wanted You To Feel That Hip-hop Was Changing And Becoming Something More Real.

With Rap Music, Because It's All So On The Street, You Get Treated Like A Street Cat: "all Right, You've Been Eatin' Enough, You're Fat, Get Out Of The Way Now And Let Somebody Else Come By."

I'm The Young City Bandit, Hold Myself Down Singlehanded For Murder Raps, I Kick My Thoughts Alone, Get Remanded Born Alone, Die Alone, No Crew To Keep My Crown Or Throne I'm Deep By Sound Alone, Caved Inside In A Thousand Miles From Home

Mostly Every Form Of American Music Is Dead. It's Been Dead. R&b Isn't Really Good. You Got A Handful Of Great Guys - Ne-yo, R. Kelly, Usher. You Have A Handful Of Great Female Artists. But For The Most Part The Music World's Changing And Change Is Good. You Have To Make Adjustments If You Want To Survive In That World. You Start To Thinking About Creative Moments - Bliss. When Everything Was All Good. You Realize That In Comparison To The Way Hip-hop Started Off, Where We Should Be At Right Now Is Not There.