“The climate in the '50s and '60s for black performers or black people in the ent…” — Quincy Jones

I only hope that one day, America will recognize what the rest of the world already has known, that our indigenous music - gospel, blues, jazz and R&B - is the heart and soul of all popular music; and that we cannot afford to let this legacy slip into obscurity, I'm telling you.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

I started imagining this whole different world. It was a society of musicians, a family I hoped I could belong to one day.

We spent most of our life almost like street rats just running around the street until we were ten years old.