Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I just listened to regular commercial music from Korea. I would just follow the choreographed dance routines. I didn't have any ambitions of pursuing rapping. I liked dancing, so I did that.
Excellence is being able to perform at a high level over and over again. You can hit a half-court shot once. That's just the luck of the draw. If you consistently do it... that's excellence.
Biggie was the King Of New York as a rapper. There's a lot more dangerous guys than Biggie Smalls out there, you know what I'm saying? John Gotti was way closer to King Of New York than him.
Rap ain't out there for everybody; everybody can't be a rapper. Everybody can't be a singer; anybody can't just be a songwriter, but it may - there's some profession out there you can be in.
I feel like when you're an artist and you first come out - people don't want you to be as creative as you could possibly be as a musician. More so they really want you to stick to something.
My mother was a - she worked at a halfway house. And one of the former inmates slid me a mix-tape full of different hip-hop songs. And so that was my first kind of experience with rap music.
It's all run by one person, but, real talk, Brandon McCartney is a book author, the Based God is perfect and Lil B is the trendsetter, the person that everyone follows and pays attention to.
I say all the time when someone asks me how I am, 'I woke up today, I'm alive.' Basically meaning people complain about so much, but you know what... you're alive. Some people don't wake up.
Music is an emotion and it makes you feel a certain way. Some songs make you want to dance, while some make you think. Some songs are positive, while some people see those songs as negative.
Your fans, they count on you to make wise decisions and wise choices. That's why they're your fan base. If you continually let them down, they're going to go find someone else to be fans of.
It seems like I'm one of those people that has the personality where, if I win an award, I wake up the next day, and I'm like 'Oh, but I didn't win this award though, or this didn't happen.'
This country of ours was built on violence; If your ass got in the way, you was killed in silence. And these been the ways since back in the days: Just ask the Indians or the African slaves.
I never really liked meat. I was a child that had to be forced to eat my meat. Whatever you ate before that you loved like turkey slices they've got a substitute now that's not hard to find.
The big stars in rap, they were too big, so when my rap generation started, it was about bringing you inside my apartment. It wasn't about being a rap star; it was about anything other than.
Jamaican music can be aggressive, soulful, smooth and exciting all at once - just like hip-hop. At the same time, there's nothing like Jamaica in the United States. Jamaica is its own thing.
I don't want any title. I just say what I say, and hopefully somebody gets it, man. I'm not perfect, and I'm just here and trying to make a dollar, and being real at the same time, you know?
I can always remember standing up to the baddest girls in my elementary school. Wherever I went, there was always a mean girl, and that girl would always hate me because I wouldn’t bow down.
I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.
When you're indie and you have your hands on yourself and you're not working for someone, you're working with someone and you're dealing with them, it's a totally different feeling involved.
My parents are my biggest influences. My parents and my city. Brooklyn, New York, New York City, the community I grew up. I don't feel like I'm special in that. I feel like that's everybody.
The way everyone in London is right up against each other makes it very real to you growing up, the fact that people have different lives to you. And that causes problems; of course it does.
I'm not like, overly anxious or nothing like that, because sometimes when you're overly anxious it kind of brings a weird energy around and I just like to just take things one day at a time.
I didn't want the public in my personal life at all - I thought that people might perceive me as too normal, and I'd lose that larger-than-life rock star persona. You've got to protect that!
When I saw rappers in the '90s cameo in films - all of those '90s rappers - it seemed like whenever you chucked a rapper in a film, they could just act. It seemed like all rappers could act.
I know that the nice shines I have on is going to pass. The nice cars will pass. All that will stay is the music and the work. That's where I get the inspiration to help people out and work.
You don't want to get stuck with a record that you've done with someone that you feel obligated to put out - that's not really dope, just because you made an effort to get together and work.
I hate the hype. When 50 Cent came out, people were saying that he was the best rapper alive: "Oh, he got shot nine times, he's better than Tupac, he's better than Biggie." That was all hype.
I think if I wanted to get to a point where I could actually grow in my music, I had to almost step away from sampling so much and start making the kind of music that people wanted to sample.
Fans are giving me instant feedback on a chat box. I keep my fans close by working collectively as a unit. I figure as long as I do that, I can't lose. I use the internet as much as possible.
The streets and the industry are two different things. You could be one super-hot artist in the streets, and you could walk into a corporate building, and people would be like, "Who are you?"
Sometimes you have to erase the messages, delete the numbers, and move on. You don't have to forget who that person was to you, but you do have to accept that they aren't that person anymore.
I feel connected to my generation through the music, but I also fear for us. We're in a very self-destructive state where we're addicted to outside opinions and we all feel like we have fans.
All my friends were in the park smoking weed and getting pregnant. I didn't want to be the young black girl having a baby, a baby's father, being on welfare. That wasn't going to be my story.
I don't just write hits for myself, or for other artists, or to just be writing it. I write it because I was born to do this. I was given this gift, and I'm making the most of my opportunity.
I often enjoy wearing loud and outspoken clothing on stage, so off it, I usually wear loose-fitting vintage shirts, jeans, or track suits I've had forever. I just add styling to those pieces.
I feel like if you're stuck doing the same thing your whole career you've got to be doing something wrong. Unless you're getting great results from it or you're just comfortable in that spot.
Selfishness is the key quality that all successful people share. To be the best at what you do in any field, and to accomplish the goals you set for yourself, you have to be somewhat selfish.
I wanted to go into prison and come out a better person - mentally, physically. So, I read a lot of books, got my GED while I was in there, and worked out every day. Strong body, strong mind.
From where I come from, it's gutter, dog. I look back on that and I think, 'That's strong.' Without growing up where I came from, I wouldn't be the man I am today, a strong minded individual.
People really feel like music is free, but will pay $6 for water. You can drink water free out of the tap and it's good water. But they're okay paying for it. It's just the mindset right now.
The experiences that I've had growing up with music, you know, I couldn't trade them for any money in the world. Dancing in the living room to enjoy myself. 'Enjoy Yourself,' Michael Jackson.
After I started based freestyling. Just spending a lot of time learning about myself and entering a higher level within my mind. I was exploring my mind, and I ended up finding the Based God.
When I retire, I want to step away on a positive note. What you put out into the world comes back to you. You actually change the world with what you do. I want to put some good in the world.
At first you're doing it for yourself, it's about what sounds good to you. It's about expressing yourself. Then you get comfortable as an artist and you find yourself and people get familiar.
I've always wanted to sing. I don't think I have a great voice, but I just think that I get the emotion. It's very authentic. Whatever emotion I'm feeling, I can sing it, and you can feel it.
A lot of people in the religious world believe that by secularizing, or viewing the changes as secular, such as dropping the beard and changing my appearance, they consider this to be a fall.
I started out in the Chabad movement, and I started pretty closed up, with the idea of there being that 'this is it.' I bought into that fully. I really explored in depth the Chabad ideology.
When I get involved, I give it my heart, I mean my mind, my soul, my body: I mean every part. But if it doesn't work out, yo, it just doesn't. It wasn't meant to be, you know, it just wasn't.
With rap music, because it's all so on the street, you get treated like a street cat: "All right, you've been eatin' enough, you're fat, get out of the way now and let somebody else come by."
I am so territorial, that [from the start] I just felt like whatever I was gonna do I was gonna write it myself, its my personal preference to always be in control of everything I do in life.