I've always believed in self, I've always believed that as long as I believe, nothing else matters. I just put that type of motivation and that type of energy into my music, and I've always had confidence in my music as well.
I take pride in my music, I feel like it actually does something for people personally, in their personal lives, so it's real music and it helps people get through things like I was able to get through things.
I wanted people to feel me as a person. I do this music for the people, man, so at the end of the day I feel like, [given] our state of mind and the state our economy is in, I felt like we needed motivation for the type of situation we're in nowadays.
Through my life, [there have been] a lot of devils and a lot of situations, so I'm just goin' hard, maintaining, regardless of what people got to say about Ace Hood.
I just wanted to let people know that, in any aspect in which you're getting' money, you've gotta go overtime in order to provide for your loved ones or those who are around you. So that was my state of mind.
Even though I'm out there as an artist, I continue droppin' mixtapes, I continue doin' this and continue showin' DJs love personally. That's why I continue doin' a lot of things other artists don't do.
Stay focused. You gotta believe in yourself. I think that's the biggest thing I've been able to do throughout my whole career, even before I actually had a big career in this industry.