"You have to put Hendrix in there if we’re doing this properly. Why Axis I don’t know, but I remember I had a copy of that record without a cover as a kid so I made a cover for it. It was some religious record sleeve - there were all these new folk bands playing at churches in the early seventies - but there was no record in the sleeve and I fancied myself as a drawer so I took a magic marker and put the album title and drew my version of Hendrix playing the guitar. It was one of the earliest records I listened to – I’m from Seattle and everyone in Seattle has a Hendrix record or five. I thought I was being a little bit different going for Axis as a nine or ten year-old kid, 'cos it wasn’t one of the main records, it didn’t have any of the hits on it. It was kinda dark and twisted and cool. I think it stands the test of time musically."

"I stand by ‘Suzanne’ as having the best lyric and melody of all time – it’s unbelievable, the guy’s a genius. All of the songs on the album are standout tracks. Bowie got me looking out the window and imagining the world of Ziggy Stardust, but what Cohen does is he turns me into him. I’d seen Bird On The Wire in a little cinema when I was 14, and went out and bought all his albums. It’s kind of like I’m with Suzanne or whoever. I don’t really like story-telling songs, but his lyrics are so simple and poetic; religious and laconic. It’s genius the way he writes lyrics, spinning things on their head, and by the fourth line you have to read it again and again. He flips it round - it’s what I do a lot. I always thought of him as the King of Hearts - Lou would be the King of Spades, the Velvets would be the Clubs, Bowie would be the Queen of Diamonds and Leonard would be the Hearts."

"I guess my first favorite movie would be Chariots of Fire. I know it’s not just me because it won an Academy Award, so I know it’s pretty good. But it struck a chord with me. I think when I was younger I was very religious, and that aspect of the story appealed to me. Although not anymore, I still love it. I have a certain, I guess, fascination with that kind of period in England. Not that I know about it; I’m not a historian or anything. But just like it’s something so romantic about, you know, going to school there and in that atmosphere and that time. I mean, it was an awful time for a lot of people, but for the guys who got to go to Oxford and Cambridge. I don’t know. It’s cool. And then they go to the Olympics, and the characters are just so interesting, and winning. I mean obviously based on real people, and such fantastic acting, you know. Great direction. Art direction, and wardrobe, and all of that."

"I got into that around 2008. That again was all about hopelessness, there was some positivity in there, but I think he had a lot to say on this album. He never bettered it. That second track, the line, ""Cuz you never know when you're going to go!"" Chilling, really. I haven't listened to it for a long time, but you have the sense of a cold afternoon in the projects, an afternoon spent doing nothing, walking up the stairs to your apartment, the hopelessness of being a young black kid. He wasn't really a funny guy, Nas. But brutal. He must have been educating himself. Books are a great source, aren't they. Some literature was held in some circles, myths about certain books, what I tend to find with a lot of rappers is this religious connection, even though some won't admit it, black culture is very connected to religion, more so than white people. It's kind of that as well, the fear of the wrath of god."