My parents were working class folks. My dad was a bartender for most of his life, my mom was a maid and a cashier and a stock clerk at WalMart. We were not people of financial means in terms of significant financial means. I always told them, 'I didn't always have what I wanted. I always had what I needed.' My parents always provided that.
I've had an ambition to be somebody since I was 13 years old because I wanted to help my family. I wanted to hurry and grow up so I could make enough money to buy my father a big car and my mother a beautiful home with an electric washing machine and all those things she used to see in the newspapers.
What I am working hardest for is for my kid, for a better future for him.
I want to spend as much time as I can with my family, yet I'm aware of having to bring home the bacon.
My mom, Cheryl, worked two jobs to support me. She really helped the family stay together.
I have to grow up and be my own man and look after my own family and make sure that my wife and baby are comfortable with what I'm saying, so if that affects them, then it affects me.
Their life is about getting enough money to put food on the table to feed their children, and that's it.
The masculine energy was about survival. The male was the hunter who risked his life and had to be in the fight-flight mode.
My mom used to work two jobs to take care of me, my brothers, and my sisters. She worked hard to take care of us. Back in the day my mom was actually a dental assistant.
My mother had bought a sewing machine for me. When I went away to college, she gave me a sewing machine, a typewriter and a suitcase, and my mother made $17 a week working as a maid 12 hours a day, and she did that for me.
I have a family to feed.
My fuel for my fire is to be able to provide for my family.
For my family, for my loved ones, my priority is to have a job and perform.
Daddy pays for the water, daddy pays for the gas, daddy pays for the electricity, and if daddy didn't pay for the electricity, he'd pay for the candle on your nightstand, so you can study for the big test tomorrow.
I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.
While I was in university, my father became very ill and my father was unable to work. We needed to pay the bills, so in my 20s I became the sole income earner in my family.
You pay your bills and you take care of your family, or you're not a man.
My mom is a beautiful, amazing woman. We didn't have a ton of money growing up, and even, at one point, we were living on food stamps. But my mom still managed to make sure we ate healthy and were always fed nutritious meals!
I cut grass, I did yard work, I did roofing, I cleaned basements to take care of my family.
My parents were hardworking. They made every penny stretch as far as possible. That was probably the major reason everything they gave me was always two or three sizes too large.
We were living in a tough situation, but my mother managed; she juggled. Sometimes we'd pay the light bill, sometimes we paid the phone, sometimes the gas went off.
I think my attitude has always been to put food on the table.
I didn't dream of being in television or film. But then I got married pretty young and had children, and I wanted to feed the children, so I worked a lot of film and television.
I wouldn't say I had a hard childhood because my mom always made sure we was Gucci, you know what I mean. Growing up, she made sure we ain't have to want for nothing. She did what she had to do; she made her money, and we was always good.
My dad was a tree surgeon. When I was younger, he was working away five days a week for weeks on end, just trying to get as much money.
