When I worked with Jermaine Dupri for his label, he would have So So Def parties and he'd tell me, 'Yo, go on get this thing started.' I had to go get on the mic and get people turnt up. I mean, I don't want to be that turnt up guy all the time. It's part of my job so I do what I gotta do.
I love attention, I'm very honest about it ... [but] if I wanna wear a pink dress or a lace dress or a kilt of whatever, it's like I'm not solely doing it for attention, I'm doing it first for myself because it gives me pleasure.
I don't wanna marginalize myself. I don't wanna be the overly woke rapper, and I don't wanna be the turned-up rapper.
I wanna be strong, I wanna laugh along, I wanna belong to the living. Alive, alive, I wanna get up and jive, Wanna wreck my stockings in some jukebox dive.
I wanna be the smile you put on your face.
I wanna be your hands when you say your grace.
I wanna be whatever is your favorite place, oh
I just wanna be close
Sometimes you just wanna go out, see your action movie, be done with it, come home. You know, and, like, you see 'The Matrix' or whatever, you see whatever film it is, and you're like, 'Oh cool,' whatever.
You wake up, you wake up, another day, you wake up, you wake up, traffic still moving at the same speed, our eyes looking at the same speed, our minds thinking at the same speed, I wanna see movement, I wanna see change. I wanna wake up for real. I wanna wake up. I wanna wake up. We were meant to live.
I grew up in an acting family. I was heavily discouraged from doing it myself when I was young, which is the only responsible route to take with any child, because its not necessarily the easiest of lives.
I grew up in an acting family. I was heavily discouraged from doing it myself when I was young, which is the only responsible route to take with any child, because it's not necessarily the easiest of lives.
Man, I don't wanna do what all the other guys do. I don't wanna end up in the booth after the games telling you what I think and talking smack about the guys on the floor when they are a lot better than that. I wanna be different. I don't wanna be known as Commentator Shaq. I wanna be a doctor or something good. I wanna be Dr. Shaq, Officer Shaq, Deputy Shaq.
I only produce things that have so much in common with what I like. I wanna understand what I'm doing. I wanna understand the instincts that are going to inform the story.
People say things that get you ramped up. I find myself, as my body clenches up when somebody says something that I know is wrong or I wanna catch them in a lie or whatever, that just, "Calm down. When it's your turn, you make your point."
Wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that's what you've wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that's what's on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, "how are you going to handle it?"
.... Like it or not, this moment is all we really have to work with.
I grew up as an only child, so I like being by myself. So I train predominantly - 98 percent of the time - by myself.
I believe that the fewer the laws in a home the better; but there is one law which should be as plainly understood as the shining of the sun is visible at noonday, and that is, implicit and instantaneous obedience from the child to the parent, not only for the peace of the home, but for the highest good of the child.
If I don't feel confident about my body, I'm not going to sit at home and feel sorry for myself and not do something about it. It's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.