I always wanted to do good work, but not in order to buy big houses and big cars. I just wanted to be 'alright', to have enough money to be able to live on, to go to the cinema when I wanted to, and buy the books I wanted to read.
It's always the big question in our lives if you have a lot of success. What do you do with it? Buy more houses, buy more cars, buy more stuff, be wealthy and distant and unengaged? Or do you take all that good fortune that has come towards you and spread the love, do something with it?
We're very good in America at talking about stuff, often stuff to buy. We tend to talk about our iPods. We tend to talk about cars or new fads.
What do wealthy people do with their money? They can only buy so many cars, houses, and steak dinners. So we either give it away or invest it.
Some guys, when they get drafted, they only think about themselves. They go buy cars and houses. I just wanted to take care of my mom.
What people today call inflation is not inflation, i.e., the increase in the quantity of money and money substitutes, but the general rise in commodity prices and wage rates which is the inevitable consequence of inflation.
I try to work on houses not cars. If I was as good at working on cars as I was on houses maybe I would. But I'm not.
If you live in a good neighborhood, you drive home and there's a bank. There's grocery stores and big houses - but no motels. What that tells you psychologically is you protect your money and buy good things for your family to eat in your nice big house.
Put money in it's place. Money can buy you cars, houses, trinkets, fleeting sex, shallow companionship, cheap attention, and unfulfilled status. However, it can't buy you peace, love, or happiness.
I do know people who buy these huge houses but I always think, 'What about all that furniture? You're never even going to sit on it!' I don't want to rattle round in a big house.
While other people were dreaming of big cars and houses, I just wanted a huge dressing room.
I think the thing about music is, it's about communication. If you communicate to anyone, whether someone unknown who's a fan or Lady Gaga, I think that always gives you a nice feeling. It's always nice when people say nice things about you. But we tend to think about people as equals.
The complaint about modern steel furniture, modern glass houses, modern red bars and modern streamlined trains and cars is that all these objets modernize, while adequate and amusing in themselves, tend to make the people who use them look dated. It is an honest criticism. The human race has done nothing much about changing its own appearance to conform to the form and texture of its appurtenances.
The worst side effect of wealth is the social associations it forces on its victims, as people with big houses end up socializing with other people with big houses.
I would buy a house, and try to buy a house every month. I didn't have education or information about real estate at the time. I learned after I bought a few houses, and then I kind of fell in love with the rehabbing of the houses and fixing them up and just the whole process and turned it into a business.
Rappers aren't the really rich ones. We all have nice houses with studios and cars, but you need a piece of someone's business to be super wealthy.