Quotes About Hip-hop

I love playing Rick Ross' 'Port of Miami' album. Jeezy's 'Thug Motivation 101' is a classic in my opinion, and I still listen to that album to this day. I'm a big fan of OutKast, so pretty much any album they put out is great in my opinion, but I find myself listening to 'Aquemini' a lot. Anything Kendrick Lamar does is great.

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.

You know, Slick Rick was tight at telling stories.

I was a bit of an outsider in the hip-hop world because I was a scratch kid and people weren't necessarily trying to hear that all the time.

I guess hip-hop has been closer to the pulse of the streets than any music we've had in a long time. It's sociology as well as music, which is in keeping with the tradition of black music in America.

You know who was on time tonight, which surprised me? Ghostface. Ghostface was early and making calls - what rapper does that?

All these rappers on stage and Martha Stewart has done the most jail time.

I got introduced to the rave scene in 1992. At the time I was into skateboarding; I listened to a little hip-hop but was mainly into heavy metal and grunge.

I think hip-hop can be prophetic and progressive, and at the same time, the dominant forms tend to be homophobic, misogynistic and something that we need to critically call into question.

People are so confused about race and hip-hop that people didn't even consider the Beastie Boys one of the greatest rap groups of all time because they were white.

Hip-hop has been the guiding light of my life as a musician and a music fan. It's the one common thread through all of it from the time I bought my first record probably. It's always been there.

The difference is that they [Europeans] don't have that culture about hip-hop as a lifestyle, a way of life; for them it's more of the new trend, the new music that you have to like.

Yes," Howie said solemnly. "I can teach you how to be more 'street'". "For God's sake…" "Or is it 'urban'? I can't remember. Anyway, I can teach you, grasshopper. Or hip-hopper.

The Internet, to me, is about rebel culture, and I've always loved it. When I think of rebel culture, I think of rock-and-roll or hip-hop, and for a long time now, it's been the Internet.

When hip-hop came along, men and women started dressing down as a form of rebellion.

Hip-hop - it's the safari: it allows people who aren't under those circumstances to come closer to inner-city life, to explore it without actually being in danger. It's something kids in middle America indulge in to be rebellious.

There's rock n' roll in hip-hop, there's rock n' roll in pop music, there's rock n' roll in soul, there's rock n' roll in country. When you see people dress, and their style has an edge to it, that rebellious edge that bubbles up in every genre, that's rock n' roll. Everybody still wants to be a rock star, you know?

Shakespeare is absolutely big in Africa. I guess he's big everywhere. Growing up, Shakespeare was the thing. You'd learn monologues and you'd recite them. And just like hip-hop, it made you feel like you knew how to speak English really well. You had a mastery of the English language to some extent.

I've always felt that because I'm from Cleveland, which isn't recognised as a place for hip-hop, I needed to step it up if I wanted to make myself known.

I have done so much for hip-hop and 'til this day, I haven't received any awards or any recognition for it.

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.

My favorite record was the one I produced with Clark Kent.

I started DJing, breakdancing and MCing in the '70s and I got my record deal in 1979 with 'Christmas Rap.'

Hip-hop is a part of rock & roll because it comes from DJ culture. DJ culture is the embodiment of all genres and all recorded music, if you actually pay attention to it.