The rap against Tesla has always been of the 'yes, but' variety. Yes, it's a fine artisanal designer and manufacturer of electric cars, and its CEO is one of the few business leaders alive for whom the label 'visionary' isn't hyperbolic.

I look at Puff Daddy as somebody that gave me a chance to prove the whole world wrong. Cause when I used to think about rap, everybody would say, 'Well, you talk too slow,' or, 'You rap too slow,' when in reality, that was my uniqueness.

I'm the young city bandit, hold myself down singlehanded For murder raps, I kick my thoughts alone, get remanded Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne I'm deep by sound alone, caved inside in a thousand miles from home

I loved doing Cee Lo’s Bright Lights in the Big City. That was definitely a favorite of mine, because I love to get all soulful. And a close second would be Flo Rida’s Right Round, because I could rap, which I’ve never really done before.

I grew up on rap and hip-hop and fell into dance music. Hip-hop died down, and I moved more into dance music, disco and house. It feels very natural. My rhythm growing up on hip-hop and R&B was cool, fresh, and I feel comfortable with it.

You can put together an album with a bunch of producers, but your vision has to be clear. If you just grab a track from this person and this person and put them on a CD it doesn't mean that they go, just because you are rapping over them.

I wanna show you I can out-rap your favorite rappers. I wanna show you I can out-produce your favorite producers. So I'm constantly getting better and I understand that there's always room for growth, especially in quality, sonic quality.

It was, 'If you don't do 'The Show Goes On,' your album's not coming out.' I had nothing to do with that record - nothing. I was literally told how I should rap on it. But I'm a bastard, 'cos I'll turn around and put it back in your face.

We fight every night, now that's not kosher I reminisce with bliss of when we was closer And wake up to be greeted by an argument again You act like you're ten So immature, I try to concentrate on a cure And keep lookin' at the front door.

I think rap was a better move for me but football's been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn't trade this in for nothing.

Life is like a box of chocolates, you fill your body with toxins, And amoxicillin and penicillin to cure your illness. But in realness? These medical companies will get you monthly Prescribing me pills that make me ill, just to comfort me.

Girl I don't wanna share you We could be together, but you scared to I ain't gonna leave you My people tell me I should And when I blow I hope you know That I could have any girl I choose But as time goes by, baby all I'm gonna want is you

I know the game, it's old and lame: You're holdin' a flame for my name and my fame. Livin' like Givens schemin' on Tyson, But she got lucky 'cause he was a nice one. But I ain't nice and I don't play that, If it ain't tax, I don't pay that.

90% of the people that rap are just rappers, they rap what they see, a lot of them exploit other peoples lives, I've been through it all, I don't glorify it cos when I was in jail, I wasn't like YES I'm in jail now I can say that in my rap.

People are very adamant about maintaining a certain sound or a certain era, like, "There were three years of rap that were great, so let's just keep doing that." The genre itself is just stuck in place. It's been treading water for a while.

But, Eminem... No, I've loved rap for a long time, especially when it got out of its first period and became this gangsta rap, ya know this heavy rap thing? That's when I started to fall in love with it. I loved the lyrics. I loved the beat.

I don't dislike rappers or hip-hop or people who like it. I went to the Def Jam tour in Manchester in the '80s when rap was inspirational. Public Enemy were awesome. But it's all about status and bling now, and it doesn't say anything to me.

So for instance in rap music, you very often hear words that would seem very racist, or very misogynous or very homophobic but in some of those instances, the words are being taken back or redefined so that they lose their injurious quality.

A lot of the stuff I've accumulated over the last few years of touring I thought was really interesting. Like sounds, sound bites, and beats even, but they weren't good dance beats they weren't ones anyone would want to rap over or anything.

If we're all saying that rap is an art form then we gotta be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you're saying, it don't matter that you didn't make them die, it just matters that you didn't save them.

If you ever fall off, freestyling is what gets you back on track and go. Freestlying ain't always just to rap; you might fall off and you gotta come back. That's what freestyling is all about. Come off the dome with whatever is on your mind.

I like challenging myself. I like the challenge of rapping to fast beats, rapping to beats that are super slow, whatever. I like the challenges, so I'm not afraid to take on any piece of music and create a song to it if it feels right to me.

I started doing shows in places that I couldn't pronounce, didn't know existed, and I've seen people that didn't speak English or Spanish rapping to every lyric and singing to every hook. I said, "This is the type of music that I want to do."

Hip-hop is the music of the youth. It sort of has the same purpose as what we do, at least lyrically, because we both are communicating a message, just in different ways. Hip-hop artists talk, we sing. They rap forcefully, we sing gracefully.

The trick with hip-hop-hip-hop is a sport. The only music that's really, really close to a sport. It starts off, "My DJ's better than yours. I can out-rap you, I can out-dance you, my graffiti piece is better than you." It's very competitive.

It's lifestyle music. It's not like some secretary who likes some pop song, but can't name who the band is; whereas a heavy metal fan is into every aspect of it. We'll see if rap holds up to that. Run-DMC seemed to be the Led Zeppelin of rap.

The 9th chamber, leave you trapped inside my hallway You try to flee but you got smoked up by the doorway (blaow! blaow! blaow!) No question, I send your ass back, right to the essence Your whole frame is smothered in dirt, now how you restin

Rap was forbidden with the people who were interviewing us and the shows that I was getting [booked on], and I had kind of crossed over. So Jerry [Heller, who managed N.W.A.] would tell me, 'Do not say you're a rapper, always say you're R&B.'

I've always been surrounded by music. The arts have been in my life for a long long time. It was just always around. I can remember as far back as third grade, me rapping, pencil on the desk rapping type s**t. So I always had a passion for it.

You can take back all the things you give, But you can't take back the days you live. Life is to some people who've been on earth Livin' every single day for what it's worth. I live life just how I please, Satisfy one person I know: that's me.

There is a community in hip-hop. It doesn't seem like that anywhere else, except maybe in punk rock. But punk rock is tricky, because it has become such a pop thing. But in rap, there is still a feeling of community. Who are our peers? Rappers.

My name is Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, the former H. Rap Brown. I am a devoted servant of Allah, and an unwavering devotee to His cause. For more than 30 years, I have been tormented and persecuted by my enemies for reasons of race and belief.

I've never had a problem with someone saying "yeah you're pretty, but you can't rap." In fact, I've heard things about other artists, opposed to me. To make a long story short, I've never had a problem with that. My skills speak for themselves.

L.A. gets a bad rap, but that's not the case. Everybody's like a real family out here. I think a lot of that comes from UCB Theatre, Amy Poehler, Matt Walsh, Matt Besser, and Ian Roberts. They're really funny, but they're also upstanding people.

I’m a fan of the word selfish. Self. Ish. When I say I have gotten a lot more self-ish, I mean I am less concerned with what people think of me. I’m not worried about how I’m perceived. Selfish has always gotten a bad rap. You should do for you.

We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put--country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together.

I would challenge more hip hop artists that are rapping about what it`s like to be real and the social ills that we face, if you aren`t backing Bernie Sanders, I have to question your credibility in terms of do you mean the songs you`re writing.

I've found, across the board, that comedians have been very respectful and kind to me. And that seems to stem from the fact that they are just respectful and kind people in general. Comedians get a bad rap for being dark and anti-social I think.

Rappers hate each other, not the labels that got rich, Don't care about culture, they only want profit. If your album sell slow, bet you'll get dropped quick; Q-Tip warned us: the industry's toxic. For reference, check out BDP's Sex and Violence.

The rap game will never be at peace. The rap game is built upon competition. There will always be competition and as long as there's competition, there will never be peace. There's a heavy competition in every scene. Everyone wants to be the one.

I think my fans respect me for bein' as truthful and honest as you can be and still be Rap music and not be opinion music. It's still Rap, its still style, flavor, flair, and people just kind of like how I present myself and the things that I do.

They sought out rap music to attack, but you don't hear that anymore because it made too much money. They use Che Guevara to sell soft drinks. If something comes out that is radical and it's successful, then it's no longer radical. It's co-opted.

The way I think it all went down was MTV was doing a special on people and my publicist heard about it.It was a good thing though. People ask me about that all the time, all over the world. Sometimes I feel I'm more known for that then for rapping.

I started singing to this one John Legend record; it was called 'Each Day Gets Better,' or something like that. I started to realize, 'Wow, I really sound like this dude. If I keep doing this, maybe I can sound dope like John Legend and still rap.'

I'm livin' in times where my daughters are found around Kids who can't afford thinking caps... But always found drinkin' raps and eatin' off beats, Claimin' laws of the streets. But who made the laws? Everybody playin' rebel with no sign of a cause.

I came into the rap game in 1992; my life was changing, but my group wasn't successful; I also saw the biggest rappers in the world die all of a sudden in the ensuing years, so it was a matter of conquering yourself before you can conquer the world.

I really like LIMP BIZKIT. I mean, I've said it for years - I don't know if anyone actually hears it - but I think LIMP BIZKIT are an awesome band. In terms of the rap-rock bands, or ANY bands out there, I think they really are truly among the best.

I'm not the 'rappity-rapper' type dude. All my music is really true. I can't just rap about nothing, just metaphors and putting words together. I can't just smash out material like other guys. I just want my albums to be crazy every time I drop one.

It's not that you don't make any money doing conscious rap music. You make a lot of money doing this, but if you're greedy and you're not satisfied with $500,000 a year, and you want $2 million a year, then you will suffer as a conscious rap artist.

Well hip hop is basically the whole culture of the movement. There's the rap which is a form of hip hop culture. It could be breakdancing, freestyle dancing or whatever type of dancing that's happening now in the Black, Hispanic and White community.

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