Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
For inspiration you go to the archives, you go to things of the past, but you still need to be contemporary for today. You can never forget the time you're living in because the past is the past and it will never come back.
When new artists come out and they're not being cosigned or some company doesn't have a stake in it, or someone's not getting paid under the table to produce the whole record or bring it to video, the artist really suffers.
People with education get out of the classroom as soon as they can and jump into administration or higher ed, there just needs to be some motivating factor for teachers to stay in the classrooms and excel. It's that simple.
I never really liked the idea of doing mixtapes but at the same time it was a big thing a lot of people were doing it and it almost got to the point where if you didn't touch the mixtape circuit it was like you didn't care.
People also knew me for putting people up to hip-hop, so people knew I was heavy into hip-hop. But as for cyphers and stuff in high school, I would never get on it because I was too shy. That's pretty much what I was doing.
Get wreck in the kitchen like she on the Cooking Channel, And then hide the heat in the car door... God damn, she's a mother-to-be, ya hope for twins, Give me a whole tribe! And be as sexy as Janet was on the cover of Vibe.
I always make sure there’s an opening in my room - an inch at the door, or maybe even at the window. My grandmother taught me that if one dies during sleep, the soul needs an exit, or it will be forever trapped in the room.
I like collaboration because, first of all, I'm good at writing lyrics. I don't know how to make beats. I don't play instruments. I'm not a good singer. So even when you see a solo album of mine, it's still a collaboration.
You know, I've learned a lot from every person I've collaborated with, from Madlib to Jean Grae and Hi-Tek, to Mos to DJ Quik, to even somebody like Jermaine Dupri. I've taken something important away from every experience.
I don't think I've had to change anything, really, apart from being more serious and focussed on my drive. One thing I've realised is that you get out what you put in and because of that my work rate has increased ten fold.
Subconciously, the things you listen to and you believe in, those things are going to come out, you know what I mean? I think you take that and make it your sound; that's what I do when I'm putting together genres of music.
I didn't get into rap to be no lyrical genius. I got into rap to feed my family and help the people in need around me, that's it. A lot of people say, 'Man, Waka Flocka ain't go no lyrics,' so I was like, 'Yeah, you right!'
When you're just reading a note card but when you're just reading a note card and it doesn't even feel real, it's difficult at times. But I have no problem doing interviews. So I have absolutely no problem doing interviews.
Just the responsibility of wanting to see my mother have a better life; making sure my sister had a better life. I went ahead and accepted that responsibility when I was young and it paid off. That was really the only goal.
When I was young, I would go to youth clubs after school, run by my teachers and there were places to go where you could talk things out or enjoy sport with kids from different areas so territorial barriers were broken down.
I just write songs from the heart, and you never know who'll like the songs. I try to make sure that I don't allow anybody's expectation to weigh on me. I have my own expectation of life. I believe in letting people be free.
Yeah. It's all in the music first. The music is like women to me. It's like how you pick your music: everybody got their own different way how they pick their women and their music, and I guess that's what the album becomes.
I've been writing songs and making music since I was probably ten years old...so my inspirations back then, I don't know - I guess it was something that was innate. I was really shaped to make hip-hop music and love hip hop.
A lot of the younger kids now can rap, but they're scared of the crowd. Mastery of that stage is an MC. I don't know if you've seen any great MCs on stage but when you do it's like wow, this is more than the words to rhymes.
The business of beauty isn't a natural model; It's built to be the opposite of the cultures we topple. These magazines got you caught in a hustle, Cause when you starve yourself, your body doesn't burn fat, it burns muscles.
I put the truth out there, I put the historical facts into Hip Hop to show us how much history repeats itself and that if we truly want to evolve as a human race, we need to stop sticking each other in ridiculous categories.
My passion is music, you know, and music influences culture, influences lifestyle, which leads me to 'Roc-A-Wear'. I was forced to be an entrepreneur, so that led me to be CEO of 'Roc-A-Fella' records, which lead to Def Jam.
A girl invited me to come out to a Bible study, and I said, 'Why not? I don't have anything to lose.' I went, and to my surprise, I saw people that loved God, but they were not square or rigid. They were just people like me.
I don't have any contracts, so I don't have to split any money up. That was my main thing - just making sure I'm taking care of myself and taking care of Lil B. Just learning to survive, for myself and as a human in America.
If you feel comfortable, and you feel happy, and successful at your job, then that's success. You define that as success, then that's success. Success is not a general thing. It's a personal thing. It's a personal attribute.
I pay my taxes, but I've never voted and I never will vote as long as the system works the way it does. Even when Obama was running, I wanted to see a woman run! I'd rather see a woman in the White House as opposed to Obama.
I did some acting in college. But then everything stopped when I was a junior, in the fall of 2001, when I started becoming religious. Once I became a full-on Hasidic, I stopped everything. I stopped music. I stopped acting.
I like my body so much more now since having my baby. It”s just kind of empowering when you become a mother. You just get overwhelmed with this new confidence and you feel really in control of your life. It”s been beautiful.
Genetics and beats? I feel like the drumbeat is a natural thing. Our heartbeat moves at a certain BPM. The drumbeat, being the first instrument, the platform for us, being that we all kind of come from that - it's all beats.
A lot of people aren't familiar with me, but it's not my job to make people familiar with me. There's millions of artists out there. I'm just gonna do what I wanna do, and if people feel the stuff that I'm doing, then great.
People always think I just focus on rap, but I listen to every type of music. If I like a song it don't matter what genre of music it is. I might listen to Duran Duran, I might listen to Sublime, maybe Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Just giving the people a great show, leaving it all on the stage. Like when I'm finished I don't want to go home with nothing, I want to leave it all there on the stage, that's what I'm thinking about before I hit the stage.
I guarantee if people keep mm..supportin' me....Just buying my records, goin to my concerts, just supporting me..I'ma keep givin' money....Like Makaveli, every time it go platinum, I'm putting money up for community centers.
I think we all do our own thing and we all have our own talents, but it's good to know that you have a family tree of success so if you need the help on your journey to success then you can look around and see it around you.
No one gave me an opportunity, which I desperately needed in my struggling days. If there is one thing that I have learned during that period is that you need to create an opportunity yourself if you want to live your dream.
I've always believed in self, I've always believed that as long as I believe, nothing else matters. I just put that type of motivation and that type of energy into my music, and I've always had confidence in my music as well.
We want to show people in the U.S. and Europe that hey, here in Southeast Asia, we have so much artists brimming with talent and so deserving. We needed to tap into that so that the West can take notice and sign them up, too.
I love Nicki Minaj, I told her I’d admit it, I hope one day we get married just to say we f-cking did it and girl I’m f-cking serious, I’m with it if you with it, cause your verses turn me on and your pants are mighty fitted.
When you do mixtapes, a lot of times your fanbase can say, 'We've been getting this for free for so many years, his new album is about to drop, we've listened to it, and we're not going to buy it. We'll download it for free.'
The kids from the streets don't want preaching or messages. They want what they can identify with. They want to hear about the reality of their situation, not fairy tales. They don't care if it's ugly; they just want reality.
I want to keep doing what I'm doing and see how far I can go. See when it stops. See what the end is like. I want to make this moment last as long as I can make it. If I miss a day, I'm afraid I'll miss out on a smash record.
My day one fans - my fans from my mix tape days - know my life now. They know where I've been. You don't want to have a disconnection with those fans. You have to give them all of you because they feel like they've known you.
I'm not sure if they do this in the States, but in Korea, until high school, on your graduation diploma there's a line that states your future goal. Kids write 'president' or 'astronaut,' or whatever. I always wrote 'singer.'
I know what it feels like to walk out in front of a sold-out crowd of a thousand people that are there for you, and how good that feels, but as an opener, you just have to train yourself to think that it's going to be harder.
With the invention of the blog and all this Internet stuff, everybody has an opinion; everybody has a voice. In fact, there was a time when the average person didn't have a voice so you had to pick an artist to speak for you.
I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit, an upscale town in north Jersey. There was this tiny area of Summit where most of the black families lived. My parents and I lived in a duplex house on Williams Street.
I always knew that I had to direct. That was something I'd wanted to do. Finally, I was just looking at the situation and I said, "I wanna document hip-hop, as an art form, seeing how a lot of people don't take it seriously."
It's crazy how Tech N9ne was back home in L.A. He knew about my situation, what I was doing, trying to find other labels. He used to always call. 'Let me know what's up, man. We got room for you over here.' We appreciated it.
It's unfortunate that myself, as a black man, cannot care about the issues that impact the black community without being seeing as a race-baiter or without being seen as someone who doesn't care about any other ethnic groups.
I give it to The Based God who really informs me and gives me that gut instinct and the power to say who's cursed or not. It just comes from a pure place, just trying to bring peace and positivity and love and also awareness.