Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts — but it’s not like you had a connection with something that was real. Not to say it’s any better — but to have that connection and then have it ripped away was, like, the worst. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero.
If your dad died before you were born, yeah, it hurts - but it's not like you had a connection with something that was real. Not to say it's any better - but to have that connection and then have it ripped away was, like, the worst. My dad was such a good dad that when he left, he left a huge scar. He was my superhero.
I just keep my ear to the street. I haven't read any music books recently, because I figure I read everything I need to know back when I was 12, 13 years old. I know pretty much everything about record publishing, radio stations. The only thing that's changed is you gotta keep up with social media. It's free promotion.
The party lines don't change, that's what makes them a party and you'd be a fool to think that just because there's a black man in there it's not gonna change the real foundation of the system. Especially when you look at his largest contributor to his campaign, AIG, one of the culprits in the economic meltdown itself.
There needs to be structures in place to do something about misrepresentation about hip hop. When awards are given out and the media talk about hip hop, they're confused because they haven't done their homework on it so you have a case where there's an award for the most pop song in the world and it's called 'hip hop'.
My son plays football so I coach a couple of his teams. My youngest son just started playing last year and I assistant coached for one of his teams. I try to be there as much as I can. I also want to kill the stereotype. I want them to respect me as a man and a father first and then if you like hip hop go buy my album.
If I had been literate, I wouldn't have sold drugs. I just wanted a job. I would have worked at McDonald's. And I would have put the same effort into the fries and mopping the floor that I would have put into drugs. I'm the kind of person that always wants to do a job the best I can. I don't believe in half-doing jobs.
I can sit and list off all the things that are being worked on and all the things that are on the table, but that will take away all the surprises that are going to come. There are so many explosive, exciting things that are happening. Everybody that is in my life and in my world now has something to do with what I do.
I think the line is where you're in the studio, you're creating. That belongs to you as an artist. Nothing should taint that. I shouldn't be thinking about what the fans want, I shouldn't be thinking about what the radio wants, what the label wants, what your manager wants, a song for the chicks, a song for the street.
Whenever we do stuff with Die Antwoord, it's kind of like... I made a lot of music before this group that I'm kind of bored of and forgot about, and everything with Die Antwoord I really love. It's the first time I've made music where, even the first songs we made, I really adore all those songs, and I'm proud of them.
The immediacy of the technology of the web allows us, as songwriters, to write something very sharp and quick. That has a lot to do with helping a songwriter be more reflective of reality, instead of being in an area where you have to process things. It's the difference between processing fish and catching it in a boat.
I read all of the stories that people write about me. The ones that are really interesting are the ones where they actually write their take on me as opposed to just printing what I said, because they're asking similar questions so often, sometimes it just sounds like I'm answering the questions different intentionally.
I like all types of women. I accept them as they are when they come into my life... But I'm not a romantic. I'm just up-front. I like to be a part of something real, not make-believe. I tell women to tell me the truth, to just lay it out. Let me be the judge and decide if I want you around or not. Let me have my choice.
A lot of people say I tried to emulate Tupac, but when I look back at my career, we're very different artists. I took pages out of Pac's book, of course, and lots of other rappers - Biggie, Nas - of course you take pages out of those books, but you eventually make it your own thing. And I think I did a good job of that.
God says, "there's nothing you can do to be accepted, trust me and and let me change you." And at the end of the day, acceptance isn't about what I do, or what I don't do. Acceptance is about me trusting God to take me exactly as I am and take me to something different. And I think that's what we should have for people.
Every life is good. This [luxury] doesn't make life. It's a lifestyle. It's a style of life. Style is what you are, but everybody has life. And everybody's life should be good. Some of the happiest people in the world have nothing. Nothing. And they find happiness in being in the world. They wear the world with a smile.
I definitely have plans to do more collaboration albums in the future. I'm a big fan of Common. I'm a big fan of Scarface; I'm a big fan of so many people, from Jeezy to... well, there are a lot of people's music that I respect. I don't know who I will collaborate with, but there's a great chance of something happening.
I didn't really do many business ventures throughout my career because I would have an idea and then before I'd have a chance to make something of it, I'd see someone else do it. I just liked to watch my fellow artists become entrepreneurs and be people who can inspire the next generation. I did that more with my songs.
When my family first moved to Hempstead in the 1960s, they were one of the first black families. It used to be an all-white neighborhood, but there was white flight when the black people with money started moving in. When I was, like, 13 or 14, Hempstead had just become all black, and the poverty became worse and worse.
I'm kinda secretive, and I can't even say secretive because of my son. He's the type, like, he doesn't let his friends know who his mom is or his stepdad. He doesn't like me going to his school. If he gets into trouble at school, he's, like, dying. He's very low-key with it. He's always been like that since he was born.
Rap was slowly becoming one of my hustles, but it wasn't my main hustle. But I come from a family of hustlers, so once I figured the hustle out and mastered it, I took it to my brothers like... "we can flip this just like we flip anything else"... and they were with it but also sort of slow to come all the way on board.
I'm the CEO of A$AP Worldwide. But as you can see, when I'm with them, everybody's equal. We don't really base our love off of finances or who's superior by financial status. We're all equal. When I'm with them, I'm letting them shine 'cause it's just like how it used to be. They still there. I'm just chilling out front.
I think one of the most important lessons to learn in the music industry is to understand who your real friends are. There are a lot of people who may be around you just because of the money or the fame. It's important to surround yourself with positive people who are accomplishing things and who want to see you succeed.
Never have so many men treated women like our foes. They call 'em hoes, but they might as well call them foes, 'cause you are totally against the existence of somebody who should live their life as an equal human being. If not, any man knows, it's like we're not equal. You know, women are usually a little better than us.
I think I have great responsibility, and when I do my music, when I try to relate to my audience, I just try to do it in an honest fashion, you know, just try to be as earnest as possible and sometime it may be self-effacing. Sometimes it may be finger-pointing. Sometimes it may be beautiful, and sometime it may be ugly.
Just take it a day at a time. If you think, "I'm never drinking again in my life," you're setting yourself up for failure. But if you just think, "I'm not drinking today," then get through that day and just stay consistent. Consistency is basically the root to everything; it's the root to all success. Consistency is key.
And when I smiled, 'Bing!' I almost blinded her. She said, 'Great Scot, are you a thief? Seems like you have a mouth full of gold teeth!' Hahahaha, had to find that funny, So I said, 'No child, I work hard for the money. And calling me a thief? Please...don't even try it, Sit down, eat your slice of pizza, and be quiet.'
I've loved hip-hop all of my life, but there came a time in my life when my entire life had a shift: where, before, I was just kind of going to church every now and then; then, there was an actual change, where I actually understood who Jesus was, actually understood the message of the Gospel, and my entire life changed.
What I remove from my writing is linear context. It's not really important to me, because it doesn't give me chills to see, "you flip the latch and the lock opens and then you can open the top of the chest and inside the chest is this." That doesn't give me chills, to think in that vein. So I've always kind of avoided it.
I think my style revolves around the philosophy that less is more, that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. That goes for my taste in design and in clothes, and even affects the way I approach music. I'm all about keeping things simple, and minimal, but being able to convey something powerful through that approach.
You know, the radio never wanted you to speak about anything, so the music is kinda influenced by the hands of the radio which wants to homogenize it and dilute it and sanitize it. And for the most part, nobody's takin' the time to seek out the cats that are still tryin' to talk, so they have a difficult time being heard.
It's like a paradox. For one side, being popularized rap got better and the other side of it got worse. It's very pop and it's very different now. When you make it as pop and as soft as it is, it lacks its integrity. It lacks its accountability. It lacks a lot of other things that came from that dangerous time in hip hop.
You know, my goal, once I leave the music business, is like, 'Man, Lupe didn't lead us astray.' It comes directly from Islam: leading people astray is the worst thing you could do. Especially in perpetuity; like, your music continues to go on and live without you. That risk is too great for me; I'm gonna keep it positive.
I'm a rapper... Gaga's a fantastic artist, you know, she paved her way. She's opened her own lane. But I think that I have my own lane. And we never cross. Ever. So, you know, I really don't get the comparison anymore. Our music doesn't sound the same. Our stage presence is not the same. I just can't see the similarities.
I couldn't tell you what was my last performance before I was incarcerated. I couldn't tell you what last meal I had, or anything of those things because I didn't think about it; it wasn't important to me. I think about it now. I can tell you everything I ate for the past week. I think that alone makes me a better person.
If I am a fan of my own music, which I am, I want to hear the best Madchild I can hear. What am I missing? I sort of had a good talk with some close friends of mine that I really respect and look up to in music as well and we all just came to the conclusion, just some more storytelling songs of things I have gone through.
I'm a fan of Bjork, a fan of Premier, you know, those are the first two names that come to my mind. 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.
We were a religious, practicing, Catholic family - Mass together on Sunday, Catholic schools, and parents who practiced everything they preached. A great gift was their total absence of any derogatory talk about people of any race or culture and we were on a street of many faiths, though no other races at that early time.
When 'Ice Ice Baby' was selling a million records a day, I bought several properties: a home next to Michael J. Fox in L.A., a palace in Miami and a mountain cabin in Utah. Then, a few years later, I took a break from touring, saw that my properties had cobwebs, so I sold them, and - to my surprise - I made a huge profit!
You're always moving and thinking about a whole bunch of things. But those traits work well for me in studios and in meetings about creative ideas. If you listen to the songs I write, they are the most ADHD songs ever. They have five hooks in one and it all happens in three minutes. I figured out a way of working with it.
As an entertainer, my first responsibility is to entertain my fans who have made me who I am today. I am not a preacher who can tell youngsters what they should be doing and what they should not be doing. The youth of our country is intelligent enough to know what is good and bad, and my songs can't change their thinking.
God built the Earth in seven days and seven nights, that's how I'm going to approach doing the album. So when it's time for me to actually finish up the album and do final cuts of everything, I'm going to line it up in seven days and seven nights. I'm going to document it, out the footage out, show people it's not a fluke.
I don't care if I am doing music: my son comes with me every weekend. If I'm on the West Coast, he'll come fly and be with me. If I'm on the East Coast, I get my son every weekend. It doesn't matter where I'm at - show, no show, whatever. Break or no break. I have my son every summer and every weekend while he's in school.
Public Enemy started out as a benchmark in rap music in the mid-1980s. We felt there was a need to actually progress the music and say something because we were slightly older than the demographic of rap artists at the time. It was a time of heightened rightwing politics, so the climate dictated the direction of the group.
I'm putting everything on the line in being able to express myself in a different way than rappers normally do. They might say, 'It's rap' or 'It's R&B,' but I'm stepping outside the box and making music for me and making music for the fans to understand me. I'm going the extra distance to be able to come across different.
I've reinvented myself every year since 1998, and my style's still changing. It's grittier now. I always gotta try something new. I've grown up. Then I was rapping; now I do music, I write albums. But my distinctive voice and style, people still can't catch it. They're still asking me, "What were you saying on that song?".
Before my father would open up a karate school in a particular neighborhood, he'd clean up the block - kick all the drug dealers and gang bangers off the block. My father was very clear: 'I've got guns too, and I'll kill you just as much as a rival gang would.' And he meant it. He was a man of many facets and complexities.
At a certain point, I felt the need to submit to a higher level of religiosity to move away from my intuition and to accept an ultimate truth. I felt that in order to become a good person, I needed rules - lots of them - or else I would somehow fall apart. I am reclaiming myself. Trusting my goodness and my divine mission.
So why you pushin' it? Why you lyin' for? I know where you live, I know your folks, you was a sucka as a kid. Your persona's drama that you acquired in high school in actin' class, Your whole aura is plexiglass. What's-her-face told me you shot this kid last week in the park; That's a lie, you was in church with your moms.
But 'Cuban Linx' was a project that really needed to come, and I really wanted to get it off my chest because I know that the fans were really skeptical about it, like 'is this really gonna be what it's supposed to be?' So once everybody caught it for what it was and everybody was happy, that's mission accomplished for me.