A Quote by O. J. Mayo

I wanted to be here because Marquette is a good school. I like the fans. I like the community. But as far as someone to talk to, I didn't know if I would have that here.
If you're not mechanically in the community with people from the community trying to talk about our party, talk about school choice, talk about SBA loans for business owners - if someone's not there, nothing is going to change. You also need to have the tone ... people believe obviously you like them. If people don't think you like them, then they're not going to vote for you.
I think it's good for the fans, as well, because they get to connect with you directly. You know, in the old days, if I wanted to, like, write to (Steven) Spielberg or Sam Raimi or whatever, I'm not sure I could actually write a fan mail and (I'd) have no idea where to actually send it. Nowadays, you can just, like, follow Ashton (Kutcher who still has among the most followers on Twitter) or, like, friend someone, you know, on Facebook, and you can actually just say, "Hey, I like your stuff."
I end up feeling like a spy in the house of ethnicity, you know? Because people will talk around me as they would talk around the people in their cultural group. So I get to hear all the secrets and jokes and you know, I'm a part of every community because of the way I look.
I think a part of me thought that I might be interested in academia because I really do love school. I mean that on all levels - I like educational environments; I like being part of that community of learning and exploration. And I like to talk.
So I was really excited when I came to America about meeting black people. But it was a huge culture shock, because I was rejected by the black community. They were like, 'You talk like a white girl.' People would call me an Oreo. All I wanted was acceptance.
I always think, what I would have thought of something like Gurls Talk would have come into my school? Or how would I have felt if I'd heard there was this one-day festival happening in London? I think I'd have definitely gone, I started Gurls Talk because it was everything that I needed at school.
I didn't emphasize my Jewishness because I wanted to. I just happen to have been raised in a family where everybody happened to talk like this, so why would I talk like somebody else?
It's not great if someone gives you sort of bland praise without giving you clear direction and say, "This is good, let's try it like this." I have worked with someone who seemed quite inarticulate and just would say, "That's good, that's good." That's very frustrating because - it's nice to know something is good but you know it can always change.
What I do onstage, there's maybe .0001 percent of the population that acts like that. I talk like that because it makes me laugh, and because I know a couple of people that talk like that. They're really that Southern. And they do funny things. I love 'em; they're awesome. They're good people.
For nearly five years, I worked with Marquette University Law School and helped to administrate a community crime prevention initiative called Safe Streets. We used restorative justice practices to help reduce crime and violence in the Milwaukee community.
I do things - whether it's donations or events for good causes or giving back to my community - for the right reason: because I want to. Because it's the best thing to do. I wanna help someone else out. As far as all the attention for it, that's cool if I get it, but I'm not doing it for that reason. Stuff like that doesn't really phase me.
I was being trained because I wanted to be a preacher like my father. I wanted to talk about Moses; I wanted to talk about God... I wanted to talk about the apostles, the disciples and all that.
I hate to toot my own horn but I just feel that I know people and I know fans and I don't feel there is that Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt barrier with me. I've always felt from everyone I talk to that the fans feel like I'm tangible and they can talk to me and they know me.
I want you to know who I am: what the streets taste like, feel like, smell like. What the cops talk like, walk like, think like. What crackheads do - I wanted you to smell it, feel it. It was important to me that I told the story that way because I thought that it wouldn't be told if I didn't tell it.
Fans don't know what they want. Fans are like, 'Oh, I want the stuff that you did in the last album because I really liked it, and if you don't do that, I'm not going to be your fan no more.' Or they'll be like, 'I didn't like that project. He doesn't sound like him on it,' or 'You're wack. You're mainstream now.'
My day one fans - my fans from my mix tape days - know my life now. They know where I've been. You don't want to have a disconnection with those fans. You have to give them all of you because they feel like they've known you.
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