Rap music came along and saved my life. I started to tell the stories of the streets and that was my way out.
It's important to me that there's not just one story told about our city. 'LSD' is an ode to Chicago, a song for the complicated love I have for my city.
In New York, the street adventures are incredible. There are a thousand stories in a single block. You see the stories in the people's faces. You hear the songs immediately. Here in Los Angeles, there are less characters because they're all inside automobiles.
I consider myself Istanbul's storyteller. My subject matter is my town. I consider it my job to explore the hidden patterns of my city's clandestine corners, its shady, mysterious places, the things I love.
Every doorway, every intersection has a story.
What makes my work my own is where I'm writing from. And I feel like I have a million stories to write about Chicago.
I started writing because I saw such a huge lack of complex stories about the inner city.
Music is so important. Because in Chicago it's up to us to tell the stories nobody else will.
I can't point my finger on a 'dream role,' but the days that I'm able to fulfill the stories of the 'hood/barrio on film, those will be great days.
