I'm a California girl. I grew up in Inglewood right by LAX.
Inglewood for me was where I really found my voice found sort of the core group of friends that I still have to today.
I went to high school in Redondo Beach, so a lot of people that went to my school are from Inglewood or Gardena. My best friend lives in Gardena.
I moved to Hawaii from Inglewood, New Jersey. I had planned on retiring there.
When I came in the game, it was just me making beats in Inglewood at YG's house; it wasn't nobody to help me.
Now being 41 and looking back on my career... It became natural for me to revisit Inglewood and to revisit the coming-of-age movie, but not wanting it to feel like a period piece completely about nostalgia but wanting it to feel like something that was relevant today and also forward-looking.
People come to L.A. and they expect to see a ghetto like the projects, but that's not the way it's set up. Inglewood, in particular, is the furthest thing from a ghetto. It's a middle-class community, but it's gotten a bad rap over the years... because of 'Grand Canyon' and 'Pulp Fiction' and other films.
When I first started working on 'The Wood,' these people couldn't grasp the concept that, one, there is a black middle class, and, two, Inglewood is a part of it.
I think 'The Wood' was probably more concerned with the parts of Inglewood that aren't usually seen on film - the areas that were middle-class, or upper-middle-class - and that idea that these worlds do exist, and should be accepted as part of Inglewood itself.
I always come back to Inglewood for inspiration when I need it.
My auntie and uncle live in Inglewood, and I used to stay with them when I would come to L.A. to audition for pilot season and other things like that.
Inglewood is a microcosm of Los Angeles. It's a city by the airport. It's the first city when you're coming into L.A., and the last city when you leave.
