On being inspired by NY Hip-Hop:

I’m based out of NC but I was born and raised in VA. It didn’t have its own scene, and New York was where everything was coming from.  That was some of my first experiences with Hip-Hop.   I’m definitely a fan of music from all over but New York was how I was introduced to Hip-Hop.  There’s favoritism towards New York Hip-Hop, it was just the stories. It ended up taking place even when I became a fan of NWA, UGK, Outkast…the stories.  You hearing about these different places and what goes on, it’s so magnetizing…

On first working with Kendrick Lamar:

No, I had no idea. It was crazy how we ended up connecting.  This was back when Myspace still had a little pull.  Their people hit me up on Myspace and they wanted myself and Phonte to do some work with Jay Rock. He was on Warner at the time, and I had went and did my research…I had never heard of them before so I went Googled them, heard a couple of songs, I liked what I heard so I hit them back, I was like Yo, I’m down…

On N.C.’s Music Scene:

It’s in a weird place.  They’re trying to re-create a scene again.  There was a scene when we were first coming up as Little Brother, the scene was bubbling and then it fizzled out.  They’re trying to re-create a scene again but it’s just fractured.  As long as the scene is fractured and you have 10 or 15 different people trying to create 10 or 15 different scenes, there will never be a strong scene.  Everybody wants to be the first to put North Carolina on as they say.  It’s one of them things where the music scene reflects real life…as long as there is no true unity, it will never be as big as it could be.

I can’t give away all the gems! Head over to HipHopWired.com for the full interview.