Quotes About Rap

As a young artist, especially in rap and at that time that I came out, originality was big.

I'll tell a young kid in a minute, 'If you don't know how to read, then what good is trying to be an MC?' Like, you can MC, but if you're not trying to be a better person, learn and apply that to your MCing, then how far do you think you're really going to go?

I grew up listening to a lot of emo music, a lot of rock music, a lot of rap music, a lot of trap music, funk, everything.

I describe my sound as sugar trap, that's not really a description that's really who I am, that's my swag, that's how I talk and walk.

I'm still going to sing these songs because trap is a type of music very popular in the streets, and people want to hear it.

When Nas and AZ send you a track, you know it is serious business. Same with Styles P and Jadakiss - then it is serious business. But when you get a trap music track, you know it's time to dumb it down.

I plan to break the barriers that people try to trap female rappers in. This isn't about 'Oh she sounds good for a female rapper,' it's about 'Yo, she sounds really good on this and can really rap!'

Atlanta is a very good scene for the type of music I'm making. The biggest radio stations are all trap or rap stations. All the clubs are just based around this music and just the southern sound, that's what I really love about the city.

I could never say Rza's trash. But he didn't come with the right formula on '8 Diagrams.' I think 'Cuban Linx 2' will have the Clan back where they need to be, but then it's up for the Clan to be back where they need to be, too. 'Cos it ain't just the album, you know what I mean? It's everything.

I've traveled a lot, I've rapped a lot. I like to think that's all in the toolbox to be tapped into when I need it.

You know, jazz is the mother of all American music. R&B and pop and rap and everything are the branches on the main tree of the life of music, American music, which is jazz.

At a earlier age, I was kind of into a pretty large scope or range of music from Hieroglyphics and the Hobo Junction guys and all that to like a lot of stuff that was in New York like Diamond D, Nas, Brand Nubian, of course Biggie, OC, Organized Confusion, Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Digable Planets, who I just saw recently, and they killed it.

As far as rap, I was more of a Mobb Deep guy rather than a Tribe guy.

The only time I ever really got into rap was back in the early '90s, and bands like A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Gang Starr. Musically, they were really interesting. But when hip-hop acts start sampling Sting or Phil Collins, then I just don't get it at all.

When I started forming my own taste, there was a period in high school when I listened to only rap and hip-hop, like A Tribe Called Quest.

When we were making 'Juvenile Hell,' we were listening to the Jungle Brothers, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Biz Markie, A Tribe Called Quest.

To have so many years in the rap industry and so many number one songs, and sold so many millions of records, introduced the world to people like Cool & Dre, DJ Khaled, Pitbull, Rick Ross, Trick Daddy, Remy Ma, Big Pun, Rico Love... I could go on and on. Having been able to influence the rap game for so long is very important to me.

If skills sold truth be told I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli Truthfully I want to rhyme like Common Sense (But I did five Mil) I ain't been rhyming like Common since.

I think that's what makes a good rapper. Somebody who wants to push themselves and their audience further.

My raps are a decision, rabble rousing, spiritual, like gospel music. I don't want to dance. We have so many things to deal with, we need to talk straight up and down.

We all share the planet, the rainbows share the sky, why can't we all share the same dream? And rap about what we see?

We've just been nostalgic about old-school hip hop, listening to it at home and looking at people like Slick Rick and all those guys who used to wear huge jewellery.

In '84 there was Raheem, Slim Jukebox, and Sir Rap-A-Lot. Those were the first three members of the Geto Boys with DJ Ready Red. By '85 it was Prince Johnny C, Slim Jukebox, Bushwick Bill, and DJ Ready Red. By '89 it was Scarface, Willie D, Bushwick Bill, and Ready Red.

Let me do five of those, and then some slower ones for those kids that can't understand what I'm sayin.