They say a midget standing on a giant’s shoulders can see much further than the giant. So I got the whole rap world on my shoulders, they trying to see further than I am.
I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man!
I use a lot of double meanings. I hide ’em like Easter eggs.
You know the type: loud as a motorbike but wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight.
Life is for living, not living uptight, see ya somewhere up in the sky.
Which is the other reason hip-hop is controversial: People don’t bother trying to get it. The problem isn’t in the rap or the rapper or the culture. The problem is that so many people don’t even know how to listen to the music.
It’s always been most important for me to figure out “my space” rather than trying to check out what everyone else is up to, minute by minute. Technology is making it easier to connect to other people, but maybe harder to keep connected to yourself – and that’s essential for any artist, I think.
Be fluid. Treat each project differently. Be water, man. The best style is no style. Because styles can be figured out. And when you have no style they can’t figure you out.
What people do in their own homes is their business, and you can choose to love whoever you love. That’s their business. It’s no different than discriminating against blacks. It’s discrimination, plain and simple.
Growing up, politics never trickled down to the areas we come from. But people from Obama’s camp, and Obama himself, reached out to me and asked for my help on the campaign. We’ve sat and had dinner, and we’ve spoken on the phone. He’s a very sharp guy. Very charming. Very cool.
Treat my first like my last and the last like my first and my thirst is the same as- when I came.
Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I’m a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?
I was forced to be an artist and a CEO from the beginning, so I was forced to be like a businessman because when I was trying to get a record deal, it was so hard to get a record deal on my own that it was either give up or create my own company.
When you listen to an album, it shouldn’t feel like, “That’s the girl song,” “That’s the club song.” I shouldn’t know what you’re thinking while you’re making the song. I don’t want to know what the artist is thinking.
I don’t even like the word politics. It implies something underhanded and I think we need less government.
Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don’t even have to like your music. If you’re big enough, people are drawn to you.
The average rap life is two or three albums. You’re lucky to get to your second album in rap!
Electing a black man named Barack Obama President in the same country that elected George W. Bush – twice! – is as far-fetched as a hustler from Marcy performing at that President’s inauguration. But it happened.
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 spring train in the winter, around early December...