[Young Gun]

I found these to be interesting:

How is what you are saying on this album going to be different? Today’s New York rap landscape is very different from 11 years ago.

Again, we make lanes. We don’t fall in. You understand? We carved a niche out and made a lane for ourselves. Was we interested in what was going on 10 years ago? I doubt it. Some of it was cool, some of it wasn’t. Are we interested now? Like I said, some of it is cool, some of it isn’t. You know, at the end of the day, we are just gonna do us. It’s real. It’s honest. It’s intellectual. It’s raw. And we are not faking. We don’t have to sound like something we are not or try to be. We are just ourselves at the end of the day. And that’s what hip-hop taught us to be. Hip-hop taught me to be myself. Run-DMC were themselves. De La Soul were themselves. Organized Konfusion was themselves. Mobb Deep was themselves. And Cannibal Ox is themselves. At the end of the day, that’s our secret. The secret is that we are ourselves. And we are not trying to be nothing else. If I fought five dudes from the streets for my life, that’s what I did.

Some fans and critics say you have more lyrical depth and a stronger delivery than Mega. Do you have any thoughts about that?

I think that’s neither here or there. That’s a person’s opinion. And what they perceive to be, it’s deep, because Vordul Mega is not the one—he will eat you alive. [Laughs] That man is a beast on the mic. Why else do we have a magic together? Because we feed off of each other. So, you know, that’s a person’s perception. Respect to them. They have their reasons to have their opinion. But in my opinion, the dude is my brother and my partner. He’s an animal. His poetry is some of the illest in a while. Like, if I was to compare him to two other people, I would probably say Breezley Brewin of the Juggaknots and MF Doom. Vordul Mega is retarded—I didn’t mean to offend anybody. [Laughs]