When I bought my first house, in Cleveland, Ohio, I sent my family there, but I stayed in New York to live and work. I didn’t come out of that basement for years, literally. Scientists have said that it takes ten thousand hours of practice to become a master. I’d been making hip-hop music since I was thirteen, but down in this laboratory I probably rounded out the last few of those ten thousand, recording, mixing, studying, creating—learning.
