Quotes from Rakim

Eminem is a master.

When I was in high school, the energy in hip-hop at that point was the park energy... I was just trying to develop my style at that point, and I think, when you're trying to find your style, you find yourself.

Maybe I'm too sensitive to the struggle, but I think a lot of people that listen to music are trying to escape.

My approach to writing rhymes went hand in hand with the music. I'd try to make different rhythms with my rhymes on the track by tripping up patterns, using multi-syllable words, different syncopations. I'd try to be like a different instrument.

When I started rhyming, my favorite rhythms were from John Coltrane and some of the things he did on sax. And certain rhythms that I hear on drums, I try to emulate with my words, dropping on the same patterns that them beats or them notes would hit.

My thing was, I loved music. I played music: I played the saxophone. So the little bit of music knowhow I had, I tried to implement that in every thing I did, from my style, my cadence, the way I tried to pause and stagnate it; that all came from John Coltrane and listening to jazz albums. Trying to rhyme like a jazz player.

My mother sang jazz and opera - she even performed at the Apollo on Amateur Night.

Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks - you can tell what he raps about and what he's been through is very similar. You've got a lot of rappers that rap about what they've heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.

We gotta let hip-hop grow. We gotta let it go through its different phases throughout the different places that's accepting it.

When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn't go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.

The golden age was when people were starting to understand what hip-hop was and how to use it. I was lucky to come up then. Everybody wanted to be original and have substance; it was somewhat conscious... There was an integrity that people respected.

I'm very smart with my paper! I stopped buying things for myself a long time ago - now I just buy things for my kids or my wife.

I go up in the supermarkets and people always go what are you doing here and I go I'm hungry in a sarcastic but nice way just to let them know yo I'm human too man.

Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music man. It's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.

I used to roll up: this is a hold up, ain't nuthin funny. Stop smiling, be still, don't nuthin move but the money.

Get your money and as long as nobody is stepping on my wad then we're good.

Once you start making money you have to put things into perspective.

I'm just an addict, addicted to music Maybe it's a habit...I gotta use it.

Don't even go to the studio if you don't think that your music's going to do something. You're wasting your time and my time.

Lil Wayne is doing his thing, and so is Drake.

Social media gives a lot of people a platform where they can express their feelings. I like to do mine through songs. I let info build up. In some way, it translates into paper whenever I sit down.

I know how to read music, watching my mom and listening to Mom play music.

You know, 'Paid in Full' is a classic album, man. It kind of got me to where I am now, so I can never get tired of 'Paid in Full.'

I always had an intelligence with me, I was always in the streets, I was always trying to do good. I was always looking for something to guide me. In the beginning church wasn't it.