Quotes from Big Daddy Kane

It's like do White privilege exist? Absolutely. In the case of passing judgment, you have to make sure that you're passing judgement on the right person.

When I came up with KRS-One and Rakim, everybody had to step their lyrical game up to build a fan base.

A kid will be like, 'Yo, you're Big Daddy Kane. My father listens to you!' It kind of makes you feel like one of the Platters or Temptations or something. You feel like you're super-old. But then again on the flipside it's cool to see like someone that's two or three generations after you excited.

I mean it's always good to document your history. 'Cos for some strange reason black history has a tendency of getting lost. So I think it's beautiful to have the ability to document it.

I've always called Puff like the greatest promotion person in this world - for himself and for his artists - better than anybody I've ever seen in my life.

You never hear a country-western station saying 'We have old school artist Willie Nelson in the house.' They say 'We have the legendary Willie Nelson.'

Ol' Dirty used to come out to Queens and spend the night at my crib a whole lot.

I love when big things happen for Brooklyn.

In a certain way, rap music is alternative.

Think that I started taking emceeing very serious probably from the very beginning. Because I started as a battle rapper. It was something that I was doing hoping that I could hang with my older cousin.

Rakim is a great rapper, but, you know, he's not a battle rapper.

Yeah, if you go too far, like there's some rappers that use words that just be a little too out there, it makes it where someone doesn't really know what you're talking about and don't really have the time to sit and try to understand.

I think that when it comes to emceeing that there's so many different approaches. You have your party rappers, which pretty much is where it all originated from. With DJ Hollywood, Lovebug Starski, Eddie Cheeba, and all those guys in the '70s. Basic party rap.

There's rappers out there that don't even know how to rhyme. They take someone else's words and go with it. To each his own.

Now if you call 'Ain't No Half-Steppin' ' or 'Raw' an old-school song, I agree with you. But if you call Big Daddy Kane an old-school artist, I disagree with you.

When hip-hop was new and raw, it was all about being an MC. You wanted to be respected as a lyricist. But as the years passed and hip-hop became big business, hip-hop became like country, rock and pop. And so you now have people who write the songs for rappers.

My best album is probably my second one, It's a 'Big Daddy Thing.' I like a lot of the songs on there. It was put together... just the structure of the album was tight.

I just wanted to be the best MC. I wasn't about owning a Bentley. I wanted to be recognized as the illest MC.

To me hip-hop is a culture and I became an MC to be recognized as a dope lyricist. That's what I wanted to be recognized as. So when I'm writing rhymes I always take it very seriously.

I like Ludacris; I think that he's a complete artist. I think that he makes great records; I think that he is a great lyricist and at the same time I think he knows how to have fun.

I want to be remembered as a combination of Malcolm X and Marvin Gaye, a strong black leader and a sexy entertainer.

White people moving into Brooklyn, I don't see anything wrong with that. I think that's fine and I think that's beautiful, but to hear about certain black people whose rent is getting hiked up so high and they're not able to get leases renewed. Now that I think is wrong.

After 'Long Live the Kane,' I toured the world as an entertainer seeing so much more. My mindstate was so much broader.

I believe that music is infinite.