Quotes About Influence

My earliest memories of defying my parents were through music. I remember rap being banned in my house, and then getting a Cam'ron album.

To me, sometimes things outside of rap inspire me to rap.

When you work with Drake, you don't really work with Drake. You send him the song, he rap on it, then y'all done worked together. So it ain't like me and him sitting in the studio.

When I first came in the game, I had a bunch of homies that rapped that was hanging around me just because I was getting the rap attention, and they felt they could feed off of that.

I'm trying to bring gangster rap back to the forefront, like in the early '90s.

When I was little, my dad showed me N.E.R.D., their first album, and I thought it was amazing. I thought Pharrell was just killing everything. That was my first introduction to rap.

B.I.G. was like the Alfred Hitchcock of rap. Like, this dude's story form was so nuts.

Most of my influences aren't rap. I love Coldplay.

I have a song that's called 'Rap Dreams, Hoop Dreams'. Besides education, everybody's got hoop dreams from day one in rap. Rap, sports, music have so much of an impact on the world.

Before I came out, there was no such thing as a black conciousness movement. Kids on the street didn't know who Malcom X or Martin Luther King was until rap let them know.

Where I go, rap goes. Rap is like my dog; it's like my little pet. And where I go, I lead my little pet with me.

I listen to rap a lot. I love Nas, Damien Marley, and Lauryn Hill.

The whole world has changed much since the '80's. In the united States, rap music and country music dominate radio and that certainly wasn't the case in the early '80's.

Rap music was and is, for me, everything.

I've always been a fan of music. I listened to a whole lot of oldies - I never really listened to rap music that much.

Before I even started listening to rap music, I was really into metal and punk.

When rap music needed to have a teacher, I became it.

But I feel like I developed my own love for hip-hop and rap music by myself. Just growing up and hearing new things. As you grow up, you begin to listen to new music that this kid is listening to, then you begin to like your own music, and start discovering it yourself.

Why don't you compare me to Sally Jessy Raphael?

When I came up in hip hop, there was no such thing as a Puerto Rican rapper doing hip hop for many mainstream people, so I was the ship, the captain, and the crew.

I feel bad for kids growing up that, like, their favorite rapper is Lil Yachty.

Scarface is my favorite rapper.

Mariah Carey, Rihanna, the female rapper Nicki Minaj, my kids - and what do they all have in common? They're all lighter skinned. Do you think that's an accident?

Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.