Quotes About Rap

Because hip-hop has no requirements, you deal with people that have the least intelligence on the planet. Some of the people that compare themselves to me, compare themselves to me because they rap and I rap. They can't even read the contracts that they sign to be a rapper, to do the deal.

I signed to Def Jam and within two months, I heard that Ja Rule was looking for someone to do a song with.

The main thing is we never dissolved our Gang Starr contract. We are still signed to each other. We never disbanded the group. If Guru really wanted to super-dead it he would have said, 'Yo, I want out.' And I still would have tried to convince him to stay. We are still Gang Starr.

I remember one time 50 was offering me different things to come and be apart of G-Unit. I didn't really do it because it was kind of at the time where they were signing Mobb Deep, Ma$e and M.O.P. I didn't know if I wanted to be up under something.

A lot people don't know that Mannie Fresh is one of my favorite producers because I used to just be fascinated with how he would be producing stuff. He'd be silly, too, when he raps.

My music is influenced by L.A. culture.

People compare me to the people I listen to, the people I'm influenced by, Andre 3000, Missy, Busta.

Somebody who really influenced me since a kid was Lil Phat. He was just telling his life story.

When I think of influential females in hip-hop, my mind goes to Foxy Brown, hands down.

To be able to work with Bun B and be able to have a conversation, and the insights the OG has, and really be able to get just advice from him, is amazing.

I was drawing before I did music, but me, I'm a dilettante. I jump into everything until I find one thing that I enjoy more than others. Rap was something that was always there because my brother used to rap - piano and musical instruments is something I learnt on the way.

What I miss is a time when hip-hop music had integrity; there was some kind of message. Not in all the music, because it's not for that, but there was at least something that got through that had some content that was sensible and positive, not just hooky junk-food rap.

I grew up listening to Jay-Z, and I think the first time I really became obsessed with learning and thinking about lyrics was when I started listening to rap I was 11 12, and started becoming aware of music beyond the familiar.

A yellow car—nay, a speaker on wheels—cruised by, blaring a rap tune. The bass was set so high that Myron felt the vibrations in his chest. He could not make out the lyrics, but they sounded angry.

The writing process, the way I go about it is I do whatever the beat feels like, whatever the beat is telling me to do. Usually when the beat comes on, I think of a hook or the subject I want to rap about almost instantly. Within four, eight bars of it playing I'm just like, 'Oh, OK. This is what I wanna do'.

My writing process is consecutive, like, 'mad scientist' crazy. It's not totally writing something that rhymes or even writing a rap necessarily. Sometimes it's just writing down stuff that I'm going through.

What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.

Don't get me wrong - we love our hip-hop, but in its own context. Rap has no place in our music. Is what we do rhythmic? Sure. Is it syncopated? Certainly. But our music has nothing to do with hip-hop.

I wrote 'Oath' for Cher Lloyd because there were really no best-friend anthems out there. Not only did she love it, she wanted me to rap on it, too!

The first rap that I wrote was about my Maths teacher, and as expected, he didn't like it, but the students loved it!

Gunna ain't never wrote no song for me. He just showed me how to rap.

That's something - you laugh about Eminem... It's funny, man, because I didn't like him when he first came out, ya know. It seemed like a big joke. But I think the guy's for real, and I like his lyrics!

But, Eminem... No, I've loved rap for a long time, especially when it got out of its first period and became this gangsta rap, ya know this heavy rap thing? That's when I started to fall in love with it. I loved the lyrics. I loved the beat.

Daddy Yankee and I have some of the same fans, but he reaches people I don't reach. The same thing with Ozuna and Balvin and Karol G.