The best memories come from Alabama."In LA it went wrong. TQ’s mom sent him to his aunt.TQ: "I was very young when I landed in a gang. I earned my money by selling weapons and delivering drugs. I didn’t want to ask people for money and at normal jobs they don’t hire gangsters. I had owned a gun. When I delivered the drugs, I often took a friend with me. She got addicted and died because of the drugs. It changed me and it got me thinking.

Now I always think twice before doing something. It’s not easy to stop dealing drugs. One day the man who delivered me the weapons came early then he used to and the buyer would come later that day so I had to hide the gun somewhere. After a little sleep I woke up and left my house. When I came back I had to make up an excuse because my mom had seen the gun which I forgot to hide. I had to go straight to my aunt, which appeared to be my rescue. In LA I only thought about things that a child shouldn’t be thinking of. The whole day I was dealing drugs, selling guns and shooting people. I never dreamed of becoming 21. At my aunt I could be a child again. She had a big house with a swimming pool. She made me go to school every day.

Of course my parents saw that it went wrong in LA. They were going to move a year later, but that’s not the way it went."A year later TQ returned to LA. Back to hell? TQ: "No,the ghetto also had good stuff. The whole neighborhood is your family. And everybody hopes for better days.

The people are positive, they’re the only good people in a bad situation. They’re being forced to do bad stuff to survive. The gangs fight for drugs and money. If you grow up with this, you get used to it. That’s just the way life is. I wasn’t afraid, I never had the feeling that they would shoot me."To keep TQ out of trouble, his parents looked for a job for him in the summer.

TQ ended up at a recordcompany. TQ: "I became the errand boy of the wholecompany, fixed the stinking jobs for everybody. Of course I wanted to cry out that I also wrote songs and that I could sing, but I never tried that. They would never approve my lyrics. I’ve been writing a longtime. If we had to hand in a text for English, I wrote a song. Writing has always been very important to me.I dreamed of music, it was the most beautiful thing in my life. I wanted to sing, perform.At that recordcompany I met my manager. She found me another recordcompany that fit me more.

In some way I always thought I could do it, I felt it."A successful job looks like the way to escape from misery and hate, but it seems like a lot of artists stick to that world.For example Tupac, he died a little to soon. TQ nods his head: "Most people don’t understand anything. The thing between Tupac and Biggie was a personal fight. There’s a lot of jealousy in this world, people want to see how far they can go.When people go to far, you have to react. Some people overexaggerate, like there’s a complete war going on between the Eastside and the Westside. These stories are all blown up. The Westside wants to be better than the Eastside and the other way round. It’s just like two footballteams: you’re on the side of the one or on the side of the other. I don’t expect that they hate me just because I come from the other side of the country. I don’t live in the ghetto anymore, but I still see my homies a lot. Some of them are doingmuch better, others just getting into more shit. I try not to worry about it. If it should go well with someone,it will happen by itself. If it doesn’t, it wasn’t meant to be. I have a different view of life now then I had when I was 16.

Life has a meaning now, I think. I hope to have lots of grandchildren so when I become a granddad I can play with them the whole day. My grandfathers both died, but when they were still alive I was crazy about them."

"TQ, my initials. I designed the logo myself I did it on my computer. With the design I went to a jeweler. The most of my jewelry are gifts. The only jewelry I bought are my watch,neklace, and my earrings. I see my jewelry as a investment, when I need money in the future I can cash everything, so I can buy a new car!"

"Three. I put all my important career desicions on my body. So I will never forget them. On my left shoulder you will find the logo of my publishing company. I earnt a lot money with writing lyrics. On my other schoulder there's the logo of my production company. My last tattoo are the letters TQ. This one represents myself. The next tatoo will be something spiritual. But the last tattoo wasn’t painless at all, so it could take a while before I go back again.

I wanna to experience how it feels to walk through the African Grass. I’m black,my life started there.

"I used to be poor. My grandmother had 24 children. They all lived in one house. A biscuit was the only thing they had for breakfast. I’m the only one in the family who is in the highest tax bracket. Because of the money I could improve our situation. But until I take care of all those problems, money is important to me. The day when everythings okay with my relatives then thats the last day I worry about money.

When I’m with my homies it’s just a happy time. Being with my real friends it just great. My homeboys, that are the friends who knew me before the big succes. A smiling face appears around the corner. This is my best friend. We knew each other whole our lives. We dealt together, we have been in trouble together. And now we are travelling the world together.

Of course, I have a lot of good memories. And crazy ones. I saw a concert of Micheal Jackson on the television. And it touched me like nothing else did before. I preformed for a large crowd. Let say a couple of thousand. But I never been as excited as the day I saw Micheal Jackson doing the "Moonwalk"for the very first time.

When I was 4/5 years old I moved to LA South Central. A big shooting incident. Bullets where everywhere. Cars where hit, Windows broke. It was just like a movie. We where lying down on the floor. And the genarator was hit. All the lights went out, not only in the houses but also on the streets. You couldn’t see anything. That was the day I realized I was growing up in a tough neighborhood. Later I moved to a other neighborhood and the same happened. Then I realised it wasn’t the fault of the neigberhood. But Los Angeles was tough.

Yeah, I wasn’t a guy where you became friends with. I wanted to be important, my pockets full of money. I wanted to have the coolest sneakers. My mom didn’t had any money. So I became a dealer. Soon I could buy the newest sneakers. Everybody loved them. Afther that I wanted a new pair of sneakers. Those sneakers turned my live upside down.

I have one large fear and that’s not to be understood. I’m affraid that people are going to judge me without taking the effort to know me. You have a lot of young artist who came from the ghetto and had no dime and then become succesful. Whitout knowing them a lot of people call them gansters. That is also what they did with me. On my previous album I was angry. Bye Bye Baby was a angry song and was written in a angry period of my life. The girlfriend from a good friend was killed by a drive-by shooting. But actually the bullet was intended for him. I was so angry that I wishes to people who did it dead. That didn’t made me a killer. Nobody had to be scared of me.

My last relationship just ended.But the music-industrie is still my number 1. priority. But I also loved her. But it didn’t work’. I could’t give her my unconditional love. So I let her choose. She couldn’t accept she wasn’t on the first place so she left me. My relationships always have a dead end. I’m the worst boyfriend there is. I don’t give flowers/chocolate. I also don’t talk a lot about the relationship. I forgot her birthday, I forget to call her when I promised her to call.