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I'm not very good at picking stuff up off the radio. It takes me way too long to learn other people's music.
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Biggie was a lyrical genius: he was a musical painter with words. As he rapped, you would see the picture come to life as you heard his story. You hear a lot of rappers rap; you hear a lot of singers sing, but you don't see the movie in your head the way you do when you hear Biggie rap.
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I only feel sorry for weak people. And mostly what I've come to find is that the weak people are the ones that are the haters.
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There's a time and place for everything. You're younger, you might want to go to clubs and kick it, but as you get older, you start seeing that life has more meaning to it. The people that you love are the people you want to start trusting and start wanting them to trust you and start respecting them.
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I'm very responsible. And with ability you have to have responsibility. I'm not perfect. But you have to make sure that your children will know that daddy makes mistakes.
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Not only did I get an A in music but I got an A in ladies.
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Well, I believe that the depth of your struggle can determine the height of your success. I was inspired to come out of everything I've been through and end up in a place where I never thought that I would be.
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My mom actually had a band called Six Pack - even though there were seven of them - who went around Chicago performing popular songs. Her voice was like Gladys Knight mixed with Aretha Franklin.
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I still feel like I'm alone at times - even if I'm in the midst of a million people. Because no one - including me - understands my mind creatively. I haven't really been formally introduced to my gift yet. I feel like I'm still on the runway.
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I try to write life and not songs. People live life, and when you write life, you're going to mess around and touch somebody's heart, and they'll relate to you and what you're singing about.
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There are so many songs in me that haven't been born yet. So I can't call myself a genius, but I never turn away a compliment, and I feel like I'm on my way to that mountain.
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I've done a lot of things that I regret.
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Country music tells stories, and I've always loved to tell stories.
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If there's no fire, there's no scream. If there's no scream, then no one hears you and no one comes to help you in the first place. The depth of my struggle has definitely determined the height of my success. To be able to teach my kids not just about success but about the struggle that comes with it.
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I know how to put it into a melody and make it comical but sexual at the same time.
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I want people to notice my writing abilities are real and that I'm not just stuck in one situation.
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Nobody knows 100% what affects the human body, mind or spirit.
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People can say whatever they want about you without knowing the facts. They can criticize you without even knowing you, and hate you when they don't even know you. All of a sudden, you're, like, the bin Laden of America. Osama bin Laden is the only one who knows exactly what I'm going through.
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With my gift, I can pretty much write a song out of anything.
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'The Notebook' was beautiful, and I was crying because its hero and heroine had died together.
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Always believe what you see - with your own eyes, that is. Always believe what you see. That's the best way to go about this business. I've heard a lot of things about a lot of people, and it was never true.
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When I think of musical geniuses, I think of Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson and Prince. That's who comes to mind.
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I had a cyst on my tonsils, and I couldn't sing. I had to have an operation.
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To hear the appreciation, the screams - that's what any of us need. We're at our best when we're wanted.