As you learn to cope with all of your newfound success, how's the transition been for you?
It's been great, man. It's been super-smooth because at the end of the day, I've always been a people-person. It's not new. Other people tend to act different or act funny. Back in the day, GLC was on this s**t. It's just like what I've been doing with my life, just on a global scale. At the end of the day like I say, man, there ain't no guarantee that you're here tomorrow so you treat everybody nice because you'll never know who's who.
As you navigated the musical landscape, how have these past five years affected the way in which you approach the business?
You reach a certain age in life in general where everyday should bring about a sort of change in your life. Everyday when you go to sleep, you feel like you learned something new, you were productive. You shouldn't go to bed with the same s**t from yesterday or the same amount of wisdom from yesterday. Something new should be established. It could be knowledge, it could be a new woman, it could be a new pair of shoes, it could be a new website or something. There's so much information out there for you. When you find yourself around people that haven't really embraced technology or embraced the modern world, they're going to say, "You changed. Man, you ain't the same." I have changed. I got to be wiser. I think that's pretty cool. I think that's dope. So anybody that has changed as long as it's a reform for the better, I'm all for it. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, I have changed. I'm not the same guy. If I were, then somebody put me in a psychiatric ward.
Looking forward, what do you want to bring to the music industry that no other has brought to the table?
I want to bring the freshest album called Love, Life & Loyalty. It's going to change people's perception of guys who grew up in the hood, or guys who grew up in the south, or the "land" as we say in Chicago. Anybody who grew up under those dire situations in a bad neighborhood don't have to be bad. People will say I'm a gangster this and that. They don't really understand the difference between a gangster and a gangbanger or a street punk. Gangsters evolve. They find some way to evolve. It's sort of like a blueprint, like a guide to reach new levels of prosperity.
Is there a particular track off Love, Life & Loyalty that you think best represents the recording experience?
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