Big Sean

“Even though it's tiring, I'm having the time of my life.”

“I feel I can really relate to a lot of young people.”

“Being in the Midwest, you get the best of all worlds and add your own flavor to it.”

“Notorious B.I.G. was one of my favorites. I started getting into hip-hop around the Bad Boy era.”

“I'm a Detroit player, they set styles.”

“I think gold is made for kings and pharaohs - that's what I am.”

“I wanted to make the soundtrack of people's lives.”

“I want to change the world. I want to be a part of culture. I want to help teach.”

“I usually sing a lot on my mixtapes. I sing a lot on songs that just really aren't singles. Even my first single, 'My Last,' which I feel like is more pop than anything - I was originally singing the chorus on there. I'm used to that. I've always had fresh melodies.”

“There's a lot of shoes that people consider high-end fashion, from Balenciaga to this and that or whatever, and the Pro Models are very similar to me. They're very fashionable to me - the design and the shape of them. I just like them.”

“I'm a sneakerhead. I probably have a couple hundred pair of shoes. I got all sorts of shoes.”

“I feel like 'Beware' is a heartfelt song - it's something that is definitely a story, something that I cultivated from personal stories, some from just other stories in just wanting to make a good song.”

“I had an advantage because people would post me on blogs because I had co-signs from Kanye West, Def Jam, and G.O.O.D. Music. Everything I put out, the blogs would put up. When I realized that, I used that to my advantage and helped build my following on my own.”

“Definitely just growing up in general influenced me; Detroit happened to be where I was. I feel like the city definitely has made an impact on my life and made me who I am. Detroit has an unmistakable soul - nobody can duplicate the soul we bring to the game. From Motown to J Dilla to Eminem to anything.”

“It just makes you a better artist when you're with people who are great artists themselves. Being around Kanye, soaking up all the knowledge, all the stuff he got.”

“I just knew what I wanted to be since the third grade. And I always did well in school. I was the type to get good grades; I never really got below Cs or nothing like that. I always kept it A-B. But there's no school for rap.”

“Sometimes eight chains go together really well, depending on the length - how short they are, how small they are.”

“I definitely consider myself a Christian. There's things that I believe in, there's things I have a self-belief on. I know I got a great relationship with God and the universe. I just believe in being a righteous person and karma. Doing unto others as you would have done unto you. I really want to help teach that.”

“I feel like I changed hip-hop.”

“Yeah, I record on voice memos. I got like 1,000-something memos. If I'm in the middle of something and I can't get it done, I'll jot it down, but I never write a rap out, ever.”