I'm always impressed with artists that churn out the amount of music you are talking about. How do you find the time to create that much music?

I'm gonna be honest, it's my happy place. I'll just sit in the studio and wind down. I come from across the street dealing with business all day. I love making television and doing all of that stuff, but to come here, I get to put my artist hat on and just create. Sometimes it's collaborating with other artists — I do that quite a bit. People that are signed to me directly, artists that are doing their thing. Getting it out. It's therapeutic for me.

Even the mixtape I dropped in November, The Gospel Of Ike Turn Up... I was going through so much, and I would hear all of this stuff about me on TMZ or Wendy Williams, and I was like, “Man, I would love to just say it for myself and tell my side of the story!” So that's just what I did. I wasn't even thinking about what projects work, I just wanted people to hear me tell the story the way that it actually happened.

To be able to dive into characters… As a performer, an actor and an artist. Man I was such a fan of David Bowie. How he came out with the whole Ziggy flow and even Prince. Michael Jackson. Those people became characters on their records. They told stories. They were able to give you visuals and music that was beyond “Here's a song.” It was an experience. That's the vibe that I attempt to approach.

Are you investigating or thinking of a character or going down that road?

Not that much. I've actually done that before, and that's always fun. I'll give you a fine example: The movie I did with Spike Lee, Chi-Raq. My character was named Chi Raq, and I actually did a whole album of Chicago drill music. I had the best drill producers and rappers and writers in Chicago help me build this character and cultivate it. Not only did you see the whole film, but the opening of the movie is a song that's four minutes long that's just me performing as the character. That song got so much attention and a few nominations. I got to embody a character. I get to do that with pet projects, but the journey I'm going down now, when I say character, it's more of the flow of like what Bowie would do, or what the Beatles did when they gave you Sgt. Pepper’s. They were tapping into something. It's still them, but it's them cloaked in a different frequency with a different image.

It's a different era.

Yeah. My favorite artist who does that now is Bruno Mars. He will give you something different every album. OutKast, perfect example. Every album they would give you something completely different, but there was still that common thread of who they were, but it might be Andre 3000 in a different character. He wasn't always Andre 3000. First album he was just Dre. It was Dre and  Big Boi. I think it was the second album they started calling him Andre 3000. Then it was Andre Benjamin. I remember the “He Ya!” video. I thought, Man, I've been dying to do something like that. To show all of your different personalities through one album, because you never know which Nick you're going to get.

I want to give people different projects, and I have them all already. I don't know when I'm going to release this mixtape.  Maybe this summer. It's called The Reincarnation of Iceberg Slim. The record is complete. I worked with everybody. E-40, Too Short, 2 Chainz, Snoop Dogg, DJ Quik, Ice Cube, and it's just sitting there waiting. It's a whole different vibe.

I'm in a position where I've been blessed enough to explore and experiment. It's a blessing and a curse, because I have to captivate them first. They think they know me from a certain thing, so I have to show them that you may have been introduced to me because of this role in this film, but let me bring you into the artist. Once I can engage with you as an artist, then I can take you on a journey with me. I've been a musician since I was a child and I've been DJing since the '90s. I have such a vast knowledge of music and I am ready and willing to explore that as an artist. It takes a minute though. Most people, specifically a lot of fans who have grown up with you in a way, they want to see you the way that they know you. Whether it was a movie or a TV show or even music you used to make, it takes time to bring them in and say “Grow with me.” When you get them, you've got them. That's what good music is.