Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
After ten years of struggle I reached somewhere, and then I see some people pulling me down. I tell myself that if this is what singers have to go through, I would never let my kid enter this field.
I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim-dude, fancy-clothes look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap - there is no other choice, or else I get eaten alive.
It would be beautiful to be able to walk up and down Peckham still, because I love it; it's where I grew up. But it just doesn't work. There are a lot of people who love you but there's jealousy too.
The movies that I've done in the past, everybody's been like, 'Cam always gets away in a movie playing Cam.' So, like, I'm trying to step outside the box a little bit just to show my range in acting.
Many have forgotten what we came here for, Never knew or had a clue, so you're on the floor. Just growin' not known' about your past... Now you're lookin' pretty stupid while you're shakin' your ass.
One of the problems with hip hop is lack of infrastructure and not being able to control its own course. I don't like that hip hop is full of infantile 35-year-olds. Hip hop cannot afford to be lazy.
Rap is supposed to be about keeping it real and not relinquishing your roots in the community. Without that, it's just posturing. Somebody who claims to speak for the 'hood don't need no private jet.
I feel like I kind of got my own lane, but I think if you mix T.I., Andre3000, Hov and Kanye you kinda get who I am. And I'm a huge fan of all of those artists, I grew up on a little bit of all them.
It's hard to think of them polite flows when Stephano Polato suits are your night clothes, and Jordan sweat suits are your flight clothes, and you still make it even when they say your flight closed.
The Foxy character and Inga Marchand are two different people. My fiance calls me Inga. No one around me calls me Foxy. I go to church every Sunday. I go to Bible study every Friday night. I'm saved.
My dream pet? I like a couple of them, man: monkey, I love dogs. See, tigers, I don't know - I can't be playing with something like that. A monkey, I can handle it. A dog, yeah; I would get a monkey.
When you're choosing the track list and the sequencing, it's important to make sure that there's some strong concepts on there and that it matters and it says something... that it sticks with people.
Don't clock anybody, let them all clock you, Don't be down with anybody, let them all be down with you. Stay self-managed, self-kept, self-taught, Be your own man; don't be borrowed, don't be bought.
Deepak Chopra, look at him. He's probably the most successful self-help guru in the world. I don't think he's struggling for any marketing or exposure. You've just got to know where your audience is.
I like to be in the zone. I like being in the studio with the artists, with the producers, with the musicians, feeling it, and going there. I feel like I have a lot of content to start writing about.
I live in Atlanta because Ludacris lives in Atlanta. And because T.I. lives in Atlanta and because Lil Wayne comes to Atlanta to hang out all the time and because Rick Ross' engineers are in Atlanta.
My best and worst 'Idol' moments? I don't have a worst 'Idol' moment... I've been spectacular. Yes, I am going to toot my own horn. And then my best moment is every single moment. I'll toot it again!
I do see a lot of young artists who write records or sacrifice records, because there are a lot of older artists who are preoccupied; they don't have as much time as they used to to be in the studio.
Black people have this thing about calling themselves apes and monkeys I know they get real (whatever) and I don't blame em'. But I feel like I'm a brute. I am, but I'm smart though. I'm not a dummy.
Life experience makes the best music. That's the thing that nobody else can offer. Nobody else can offer my life. I have a life that is fit for movies, music, and so forth. Nobody else can give that.
There were times when I was just listening to albums for the hype of it. Some albums, I would just put it on in my car, and me and my friends would just drive, that we'd wild out to, get arrested to.
When you're a new person and a new idea, you get invited to all these different things, and everybody wants a piece of you. And you want to be polite and say yes to everything, but it gets dangerous.
I have a few friends that have inspired me since I was a young kid. When I watch old films or modern movies - particularly 'Gladiator,' 'New Jack City' and 'The Skin I Live In' - I'll also get ideas.
I never had any plans to become a producer when I was a kid. I wanted to be a DJ, like most other kids at the time. Then my mum bought me a Casio keyboard and I started to sample sounds that I liked.
God damn! Drug dealers dealin' to the kiddies, Livin' in the city ain't no pity on the itty-bitty. We try to cry, but still they all die, I try to speak to the youth, and the truth is: they all high.
They wanna bury me im worried. Im loosin my mind look down the barrel of my nine and my visions blurry. Fallen to pieces am I guilty? I pray to the lord but his laws be unfortunate because im guilty.
I want to be on a show that's not sensitive to racial jokes; I want to be on one where they call me everything and I call them right back. There's blatant racism going both ways. That's what we need.
Every young person is going to be inspired to be a maker from now on. It's like how everyone used to want to be a musician, an actor, an athlete -- but a maker is what people are going to want to be.
Music is the best way I can express myself, meaning that why I write and how I came to love music comes out through Xzibit. Who I am, who Alvin Joiner is, comes out when I pick up that pen and write.
I would say when you're dealing with live musicians and musicality, the warmth of a live instrument brings a certain feel to a song that is really hard, sometimes, to get from synthesized instruments.
I love beats that are hardcore, dirty and raw. I love takin niggas burners when they scared to draw. I love plottin on my enemies, I love to attack. I love beatin down niggas when they rhymes is wack!
I appreciate the additional additives and preservatives that help sell a project, but I'm sticking to what works best for me. I gotta sell the album live on stage and make people believe in the songs.
Maybe we need to look upon technologies and social networks as things that come out of us, not things that lead us. We can be on top of these things instead of them bein' on top of us as human beings.
I'd rather have a hundred thousand or a million people saying I'm nuts and I'm crazy for my musical choices and what I've said lyrically, than a million people all raising their hand on the first day.
I still pinch myself, I'm touring with Cormega you know what I'm saying, a few years ago I'd be sitting in my room doing whatever and listening to Cormega's albums on repeat and knowing all the words.
I think with the right person and the right music, people from all walks of life can come together. I know that's what my life was about. I've seen it all, so that's what I want to bring to the table.
There was certainly, like, a rebellious, like, youthful rage in me. And there was also the fact of no getting away from fact that I am white, and you know, this is predominantly black music, you know.
I just want everybody to know my music and get to know my squad, Remy Boyz; just to show people New Jersey. New Jersey got talent, too. I mean, everybody sleeps on us, and they put us as the underdog.
For me, it's always been one of my pet peeves to keep people engaged and talking, and just always being interested in what I have going on. To keep the level of creativity always turned up to the max.
The weirdest place I ever actually woke up in was a villa on the beach in Mexico. It was burning hot, and there were all these crabs walking around me. But I was feeling good, so I went with the vibe.
As nervous as I am to pick up a water bottle, that's how nervous I am to perform. My confidence is very high. I really enjoy going up, I feel like it's my birthday everyday that I have to go up there.
Reggae was always a passion of mine. I used to say in interviews that I would love to do a reggae album. But it consumed my life being a hip-hop artist and being Heavy D, which I'm happy and proud of.
You could be a Green Beret and a kid could jump out from behind a building and hit you with a rock. No matter how tough you become in the military, there's a way to die: there's nothing safe about it.
I couldn't even think about wanting to be something else; I wouldn't let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn't stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane.
I had success. I had a number one record. I had a number one album. I have to make this kind of record again or else I'm going to lose it all. That's how you end up making the same song over and over.
Nas is one of my favorite rappers because you don't get any of that flashy stuntin'; you get the real, just raw bars. The way he tells stories and his vibe, I think we would make great music together.
I had to figure out what to make for myself as an artist. As a producer you make stuff for all kinds of different people. I was making beats for other artists but not for myself. It was kind of weird.
I feel like my peers now are artists like Madonna and the Stones, Michael Jackson and Prince. These are people who were able to take their careers beyond the normal here-today-gone-tomorrow life span.
I think half the battle is just being comfortable in front of the camera - and I already am, doing so many videos and interviews, so then it just takes that extra step of trying to get into character.
I'm not one of those acts where it's, like, this mainstream person, where the average white kid at Harvard University is like, 'It's educational tonight. Let's all go out there and spend Dad's money.'