Like Lyndon Johnson, President Obama understands that timidity in a time of troubles is a prescription for failure.
When you grow up in Atlanta, joining Lynyrd Skynyrd is like joining the Rolling Stones.
We're definitely a hodgepodge of influences. Mine, most heavily, would be Southern rock - the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and stuff like that. Hillary is more from the country side - her mom is Linda Davis, a country singer. Dave, he's a big fan of the Eagles and like that.
I like lyrical rappers and turn up rappers.
From the outside-in, Atlanta is kind of perceived as like popcorn. People don't respect it as having artists such as myself and EarthGang and other lyrical talents and album-worthy artists.
Lyrically I like to use themes that make the listener use his or her imagination, and to give a little of the lessons I've learned in my own life.
I don't sing melodically. Rhyme pattern is how I sing. I also write like a lyricist or an MC because that's what I was before I was a singer. I just took those elements and put them into music.
I didn't feel like I was allowed to be a songwriter. I thought I had to be a really intelligent lyricist, like a poet.
When I wrote the lyrics, melodies, and the first themes of 'Serendipity,' I tried to come up with some rare things you find in life, something very special, like the calico, three-striped cat; things that have extraordinary meanings in people's lives.
I have immigrant, African parents. They would say, in their Nigerian accents, 'So you want to be a jester?' And I was like, 'I don't want to be a court jester, Ma. I want to be a comedian.'
Once you meet an entrepreneur like Jack Ma, you just want to make sure you bet on him. It's not a hard decision.
Just like I gave Jack Ma and Alibaba the luxury of staying private for longer, I am now giving Arm the gift of being private. My only message to them now is take my investment and let's go, go, go.
Bernie Mac is relentless. That's one thing I like about him. He's not PC. He doesn't care what you think. He's going out there to please that audience.
In the wintertime I like macaroni and cheese.
What brought me to the table was Raymond Chandler and, to a lesser degree, Ross Macdonald and Dashiell Hammett. I was basically inspired to want to write like the classic private-eye writers.
There's blackballing involved with Machine Gun Kelly, a lot of confusion about who I am as an artist. But that's so small in the wake of someone like Nelson Mandela.
No one rocks a heavy machine gun like Michelle Rodriguez.
I have Glocks, .45s, Berettas, Remingtons. I like the marksmanship and the discipline that it takes to be a gun owner. I like the machinery. Being able to take it out and clean it is even more fascinating than having the gun.
What I'd really like to control is not machines, but people.
I love playing the macho guy who looks like an idiot.
