Quotes About Influence

Hip-hop is rich in musical allusion. It takes something that already existed, respects it, and reuses it.

I'm definitely inspired by old hip-hop.

You have these megabrands who make most of their money off hip-hop culture. Where were they in the time of need?

Hip-hop isn't dead by any means, but it's not something I define my black identity with.

There's hip-hop music in 'Power,' but the show is not about the hip-hop industry.

I can do every type of music, but hip-hop was my way into the game.

Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I've been around since 1986.

Especially in hip-hop, no one takes responsibility for their actions.

Since I was a kid, I was listening to hip-hop.

I would have to be traditional and say that my favorite era of hip-hop was between '85-'89. That was the era that got me to love hip-hop.

As a lover of both hip-hop and jazz, I feel like much of the latter community still doesn't truly embrace hip-hop as a musical extension.

I've never been a mega-star. I'm more of a tastemaker of hip-hop. I try to be more of an ambassador for the era of hip-hop that I came in.

I don't even listen to hip-hop.

When my time is up in hip-hop, it's going to remain what Afrika Bambaataa thought it was supposed to be. It's going to remain what Kool Herc thought it was supposed to be; what Wu-Tang Clan sees it as; what Outkast sees it as; what Snoop Dogg sees it as. People are trying to forget that brand of hip-hop.

People say I'm destroying hip-hop, and I'm like, there's so much hip-hop, and it's so popular, so I don't know why I have the power to destroy it.

I plan on making my mark on the legacy of hip-hop, period, but also in Atlanta production because there's a lot of history there.

Hip-hop music was our life.

Hip-hop basically controls the world through fashion, through music, through language, through culture. It's basically running the world, no matter what anyone wants to think, and that's just the way it is.

New York hip-hop inspired me a lot.

I honestly now know that I'm the physical embodiment of hip-hop on earth. That's my only purpose here on earth is to keep the culture together long enough for it to remain everything that we thought it could be when I was coming up.

There was no hip-hop before Afrika Bambaataa.

When I was little, I used to listen to Lauryn Hill, so that's that hip-hop and R&B influence in me.

I love hip-hop.

I think hip-hop has always been political because this is a community that doesn't have any other choice.