HHDX: You said something about a generation that’s not being represented. T.I. and Jeezy talk about cooking drugs, but many of the people who listen to them don’t do that. The college student or the normal cat isn’t represented in music like that.

Naledge: It's all about balance. I don’t knock what T.I. does and what Jeezy does, because I feel it’s just as authentic as what I do. But what I do knock is these cats who listen to T.I. and Jeezy and whoever else you want to characterize– whether it’s the trapper rapper, the pimp rapper, the gangsta rapper...What they're doing is seeing that it’s profitable, so they're adapting to a lifestyle that they never seen and never lived, just for the sake of selling records. And that's wack to me, it's wack as fuck. I wouldn’t want somebody to perceive this college stuff as just being an image to portray. I would rather you go to college and not rap, than just take on this fake image of being preppy just for the sake of selling records. That’s why I feel like me being authentic in what I do, it’s something that provides a balance to the landscape, because I’m real. I hustle just as hard as those dudes do. And I feel like if they were dealt the cards that I was dealt they would...It’s no reason a kid, who has two PhD’s for parents should be selling drugs. There's no reason I should be on the corner, there’s no reason I should be doing dumb shit. There's no reason I should be gang banging. When I was younger if I tried to hang out on the corner, there were cats that would smack that shit out of me, like, “You got a good thing going for you; what are you doing?” And that's kind of what I’m doing with my music. I’m saying it's OK to come from where you come from, and just be you, because that is more accepted in the hood than faking. That’s why I think our music wins, because it’s authentic; and it’s nothing that you can say to tell me differently. Because this is the life that I’ve lived. And that’s what I’m rapping about.

Mr.Sandman