I meet so many people that just sort of say, "I want to thank you for your music. It really helped me" or "It changed my life."

I'm a Loser,' 'Help,' 'Strawberry Fields,' they are all personal records. I always wrote about me when I could. I didn't really enjoy writing third person songs about people who lived in concrete flats and things like that. I like first person music. But because of my hang-ups and many other things; I would only now and then specifically write about me.

Five or six songs leaked from the original version of 'Encore.' So I had to go in and make new songs to replace them.

I'm not a gangsta rapper. I rap about things that happen to me. I got shot five times. People was trying to kill me.

Sam Phillips asked me to go write a love song, or maybe a bitter weeper. So I wrote a song called, "Cry Cry Cry," went back in and recorded that for the other side of the record.

My dad knew I was mad about music. While he worked as a barber he would hear songs on the radio and we'd have endless discussions about them. So I got my first record player when I was 11 years old.