Mr. Hudson is just an enigma. He’s just one of my favorite people on the planet man. An amazing, amazing artist. Not only an amazing artist but an amazing singer. You know what I’m saying? Mr. Hudson’s range where he sings is something not a lot of people can do man. You don’t just meet singers with that type of ability these days. That’s why on this project I like to work with people like Mr. Hudson, Charlie Wilson. People who can really fucking sing.

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I love champagne man. Champagne is my shit. Niggas was in Paris for Fashion Week on a steady diet of champagne and three outfits a day. I wanted to bring it around right after that to we deserve it for that last hook to you deserve it because courtesy of Yohan. He started working on this song with me and he really picked up on the self worth anthem quality of it. So at that point I wanted to turn it around to really speak to the audience. You know? Speak to the listener and tell them that you deserve it. You don’t have to just live through me. No it’s like you deserve it when you’re feeling worthless underneath the surface. Remember that you deserve it, you know you aint perfect but you’re human. Just for that reason you’re perfect, you deserve it.

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So Kool and the Gang have a song called “Celebration.” I also be cooling with gang members and we be celebrating things at times.

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I was thinking highly of myself and thinking that people know I do this shit. They know that I really, really rap on a high level. That’s what they want. That’s what I want. That’s what I expect of myself, that’s what I deserve. Just trying to make sure that I put the heart and soul, and the love into everything I do. Never half ass shit. Because I gotta be amazing. That’s the only way I can be.

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So “make money but the money never make me,” That’s like from a song I did a long time ago on a tape called ‘The Innanetape.’ The song was called “Time is Money.” So that was kind of like a throwback to that. I was talking about moving back into my momma’s basement man. Because when I first moved out after I had done that first mixtape, and then I moved out to LA with my girlfriend and I had a studio and the crib. I got really really addicted to drugs and ended up kind of like in a manic episode of sorts. Then had a really bad crash and was just like horribly depressed and was completely unable to write any music, but I’m trying hard as fuck. It’s like my serotonin is all gone. You know what I’m saying? It was harsh. It was a mess. So that’s when I moved back into my momma’s basement. I think a lot of people have probably been through that, man.

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Addiction is so prevalent in my life. It’s so relevant to the lives of so many. I definitely have seen niggas go from serving to turning into addicts in one form or another. That 180 is crazy. To go from having a guy that’s distributing and now instead of re upping.. You trying to get high. That’s a place you don’t want to be man.

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I like storytelling, man, and I like coming from different angles. When I talk about, “since 17 she been working on the pole but she knew her purpose,” oftentimes I feel like strippers, sex workers, these are people who are very judged, and everyone thinks they know their story. Everyone thinks they know why they do it. They think it’s because they have no self respect and they’re broken people inside and it’s all daddy issues, but it’s like a lot of women choose to work those professions. Because they gotta get that money. I wanted to just spit that to appreciate that woman for doing what she gotta do to get that money without judgment. Because she deserves everything that she has and everything that she wants.

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My grandma, man, I got it tatted on my hand, you know what I’m saying? This is Mina, my paternal grandmother. Never left Ghana. I made her my higher power, actually. When I was doing the 12-step program, it’s very God centric, but it’s nondenominational. It’s as you choose to interpret that word. I decided to make my god Mina, my grandmother, and just give her my burdens. We never had so much of a spoken relationship as just a love and understanding, you know what I’m saying? Because she didn’t speak English. Isn’t God one that loves you like unconditionally? He loves you regardless of what you’ve done and just loves you for being. That’s how I feel like my grandmother is for me.

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Power transformation and miracles is a chant that my people down in Florida, the dream defenders and my homie Umi does. Aja Monet, that’s like my big sister, and she’s a poet, activist, organizer who’s down there right now, down there in Florida. This is a chant that they do that I heard one time when I was at one of their events.

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I was doing a 12 step when I wrote that line. I just thought it was a dope line. I think Malcolm London might have actually came up with that. “I see 12 and I’m going to step. I never did a 12-step.” It’s just dope, you know what I mean, for people that know what a 12-step is. Yeah, I have done a 12-step. I do it currently, sometimes.

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