Q: When they told you your album went to No. 1, were you surprised, or did you think, "Well, obviously"?

A: I wasn't surprised. I expected it to do even better than it did. You've got to believe in yourself more than anything, but no, I expected it. It could have done better

Q: You seem like you're hard on yourself

A: I am. It's part of being a genius, you know what I mean? You take your time with everything, and you evaluate everything. I have't rapped since I recorded my last song. I haven't rapped in months. It takes time to put your life in your music. I got to gather my my thoughts back up and get back into that drive again. Even my songs that party still got my real life in it

Q: You put a lot of your real life in your songs, which must be painful sometimes, to make them and to perform them every night

A: It's not hard. I'm not that person anymore. Everything you hear on my records is not me at all anymore. I'm the complete opposite

Q: How long did the album take you to make?

A: Two years to make it, but it was worth it. I'm getting hella good reviews from it. Even the bad reviews are calling it a good album. Nobody's calling it wack, and that's a success, but mainly everybody praised it and called it an amazing piece of work

Q: I never saw a bad review of it

A: You're not me, so you're not searching. I'm searching everywhere, from the small dude on YouTube to the person on Twitter that has 35 (followers). I want everyone's opinion. I like when people dislike my music. It lets me know how big I am as an artist. It lets me know my music is traveling. ... It makes me feel good to hear someone say, "I like Kendrick more than Q." It lets me know how far we came, and how big we are as a company

Q: As you're making your album, Kendrick's album comes out and does well. What does that do to you? It puts the pressure on, right?

A: Some people call it pressure, but it wasn't no real pressure. I know what I was gonna do. I was gonna sell regardless of Kendrick. We have different fans. Some people think I'm riding Kendrick's wave, but in order to ride Kendrick's wave, I'd have to have him on three songs on my album, using the same producers, doing the same kind of thing, but we're two completely, completely different artists. I did it my way. People could say Kendrick helped me. Yes, he did help me in the sense of putting me into the light, but he didn't help me become a star. I did that myself. ... I'm more outspoken, he's more observant. I say things when I shouldn't say them, he says the right things. We're two different people

Q: You've talked about feeling more comfortable on this album. What changed?
A: Just me as a person. I'm just more comfortable being me. I'm not scared to be me. I love the honesty in my music. I don't think any rapper to this day puts as much honesty in their music as I do. I feel like everybody talks about stuff (people) already know. They talk about the government, about how people are homeless outside the White House, but we all know these things. What about your life? I like to talk about my life, my story, the stuff I see.

Q: A lot of the reviews point out that you talk about your life in an unvarnished way, and they can't understand why there's no apology, no moral to it. That sort of rap has fallen out of favor

A: You can't get an Ivy League student to review (hardcore hip-hop). They don't know anything about that. They can't understand the lingo. I just got into rock, but I have no place reviewing rock music. ... That's not my life, and that's not where I come from, and I can't fully understand it. I just like what I like about it

Q: But I'm sure a lot of your audience is middle-class white guys

A: They can relate to some of it, not all of it. ... I've been to plenty of shows where I didn't fully understand the artists, but I like what I like. The same thing happens every night with me

Q Do you look at it as something that's part of your job? To make them understand?

A I can care less. ... It is what it is. You either get it or you don't. As long as you like it, that's what's up