I would just see all these images, and I’ve received so much doctrine: the white man did this, the black man suffered that. I’ve received all of that doctrine and I understand it.

I can spew it — I can spit back with any other Muslim or any other Five Percenter or anybody on the street. I can kick it and I know it; it’s embedded in me. But at the same time, I wanted to see beyond the pain and beyond the hurt and beyond the conflicts that we have with each other.

And again, I’m a human being — I can fall short. But I still was on that; that’s where all of that came from. I’ve gotten criticized by artists, straight black artists that are urban and stuff. I’ve had conversations with them. But I just would try to explain to them that it’s bigger than just us. They’re like, “Well, we got to get ourselves together before you go to the world.” I said, “Well, that’s true — true that we need to get together.”

But I think if I’m leaving out one, I’m leaving out everybody.

ON PERSONAL INSPIRATIONS

I got my inspiration from hearing a Jamaican guy on the radio one time. My biological family is Jamaican; my father is Nigerian. I was born in England and influenced by music of England and my Godmother; very big influence. My Godmother and my grandfather are my biggest inspirations as people and as human beings, too.

Then, listening to music: I was really into classical music. I really loved classical music as music. Reggae was always in the house, but I really loved classical music and all the instrumentation — I loved all that stuff.

Then I came to America, and then all of that kind of dropped. I got into the reggae, and everything about reggae I listened to. It was just like — that was it. I was infatuated by it. The language, the words, what the words meant; what was going on in Jamaica at this time period. “What is that mean? What’s he saying right there?”

All the styles that the singers had; because all the styles at that time — when I was listening to it — they all sounded different. Everyone had their own style.

So it wasn’t like, you know you hear a rap dude or a singer dude sounding the same. There was no, like, “We sing R&B like this. We rap like this.” You see reggae, and there’s so many different strains of the singing. It was like different styles — everyone had a style.

So I grew up on that to create my own style. And that’s why I sound like me — because of that. Because everyone had their own style.

ON ARTISTIC INFLUENCES

My influences are every reggae singer that ever graced the Earth. And today, too. And whether they’re in England or they’re in Jamaica, I listened to music and that was my thing. It would take me from where I was: being on the street and wilding out.

So after you have a rough day, you go inside and listen to some good music. I had my turntables and my homeboys had their soundsystems in their cribs. So I stayed by my friend’s house or by my house and it was all about music. Just to get away from the street life. That’s how it comes.

There’s a few artists that were very prolific within the reggae that inspired me to write better. But there’s two sides to that: there’s guys that were in England that used to chat — the English-style rapping. And that just came from one soundsystem.

I’ve listened to others but these guys were just like the epitome of what an MC or a Jamaican MC should be. That’s Saxon Sound Studio — the best that has ever done it, in my opinion.

And they changed the face of reggae — to this day, people still speak on their lyrics. Still stealing their lyrics and their styles. I heard it Saturday night — some dude was stealing Irie’s lyrics and not even doing a good job of it. So it’s still going on. These guys — I think they even played for the Queen and all of that stuff. These guys are just legendary soundsytem from out of England. So that’s on the rapping-chatting side.