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.
People of all races need to come together to control our government and run a giant comb through it so we can see the filth that comes out.
We used to cut out of school and go to Coney Island to record songs almost every day.
A sickle-cell attack would creep up slowly in my ankles, legs, arms, back, stomach, and chest. Sometimes my lips and tongue turned numb, and I knew I was going into a crisis.
Just having conversations with God, begging God to make the pain go away, and then the pain wouldn't go away. So I'm like 'Who the hell am I talking to? God is not responding.'
I'm always vocal about people being unique and different in 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.
It was the camaraderie and the friendships, too, that really drew me to Queensbridge.
'Cobra Clutch' was to let the world know we ain't going nowhere. We got the game in the cobra clutch.
I'm a creative person, and I'm gonna be creative, so whoever's upset because of that, that's too bad.
When we first signed to Loud, we had a 20-song demo. So all of those songs we wanted to put on the album. But we started making new ones, and through process of elimination, we wanted all the new ones. We didn't like the old ones no more.
'Dragon's Lair' was real ill.
When I was a kid, I used to love to play 'Dig Dug.' It was, like, this little dude, where he digs in the dirt and makes tunnels.
I couldn't afford to get sick in prison. My sickle cell is no joke, so I couldn't eat poorly or not exercise. And everything in jail is designed to do the exact opposite.
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.
I don't want fans anymore, because the definition of a fan is a fanatic. The people who buy my product and ride with me are my supporters, not fanatics.
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.
We started writing songs like 'Shook Ones' and 'Survival of the Fittest' explaining our neighborhood, but more our personal lives.
I was a very serious child who never got to enjoy life to the fullest like a normal, healthy kid.
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.
