Top 267 Quotes & Sayings by Nas - Page 4

Vocabulary spills I'm ill.

Me and hip-hop have a relationship that has nothing to do with no other rapper, no matter where you from or nothing. Every n*gga got his own personal relationship with hip-hop and this is mine.

I think it's harder to make a classic now, not because of what people say, but because artists now are so concerned with what people say.

You got a handful of great guys - Ne-Yo, R. Kelly, Usher. You have a handful of great female artists. But for the most part the music world's changing and change is good. You have to make adjustments if you want to survive in that world.

And the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dykes.

I got the opportunity to meet people all over the world. Brilliant women, tall women, short women, slim women, thick women, you name it. But, I don't meet them. I have the opportunities to and it's a little bit - I'm a little shy, so I don't meet them and I don't know who's right for me.

You ni**az get me sick, wannabe soundin like you know my arithmetic... but we don't sound alike

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'.

I'm proud to be an American, no matter what. But Amercian culture is stale, you know wha I'm saying ? We keep regurgitating the same sh*t. And it ain't exciting. I seen it from when I was a kid watching the whole sh*t. The sh*t was exciting to me.

I'm out for presidents to represent me (Say what?) I'm out for dead presidents to represent me.

Sunlight and seeing something that was a thought become a thing and materialize - that makes me come alive.

I used to keep a dictionary and work with it and then I realized there are more words that exist in the English language than there are in this dictionary.

Hip-hop is such an amazing thing that kids still want to do it. They're not saying, "Ugh, that's the old people's music." No, they're younger than they've ever been that want to get into hip-hop music.

When I try to sound like the contemporary sound, it never turns out that way. That's just me.

I want each album to say something different and be accepted better than the last one but I don't have any point to outdo any particular album of mine.

All I need is one mic . All I need is one life, one try, one breath, I'm one man.

I just appreciate what Andre 3000 has done musically - just the bravery. I think Andre 3000 may be one of the bravest artists in rap music.

Dogs live longer than rappers.

Realize, how many classics I gave you/Perhaps if you think back you'll realize that I made you

Love the skinny model chicks but I prefer the thickness.

I sip the Dom P watching Gandhi til I'm charged - writing in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin

The big stars in rap, they were too big, so when my rap generation started, it was about bringing you inside my apartment. It wasn't about being a rap star; it was about anything other than.

So many affluent men are faced with finding love problems. I'm sure beautiful, affluent women are faced with the same things sometimes.

I live in L.A. because my kids do. Home is where my kids are for me.

If I made an album just to sell you a story about how I'm the man, it really doesn't show any human side to me. It's good to talk about what's real and what's relevant.

No matter where you're from - you can be Native American, Italian, Jewish, Latino, African-American - whatever you are, we're all distant relatives.

Jamaican music can be aggressive, soulful, smooth and exciting all at once - just like hip-hop. At the same time, there's nothing like Jamaica in the United States. Jamaica is its own thing.

Hip-hop artist, especially the older ones, are the ones who new hip-hop was a worldwide phenomenon before the mainstream caught on, so hip-hop artists are forward thinkers. We want to stay with the new.

Hip hop started in NY so it's important that New Yorkers realise that to talk about NY music and its sound should not be a small-minded conversation. Music is supposed to evolve. It's supposed to be going through changes, it's not supposed to sound exactly the same as what it did when it started. NY hip hop has to be allowed to move on and grow and expand.

I had been through, of course, the divorce and I had been hit with some taxes that really showed me to be careful who's working with you and your money, and you have to be the one that is responsible for your money - you can't trust anyone and I did and I ran into a problem.

If the virgin Mary had an abortion, I'd still be carried in a chariot of stampeding horses.

There was a lot of negative that was put on rappers for using the word, and I feel like we're just misunderstood. Most of us are; some of us is just plain wack.

I'm inspired by people like Nelson Mandela. Can you imagine - you know how racist America was back then - imagine how racism was in South Africa when he had to stand up and say what he had to say. That's bravery beyond comprehension.

I guess entertainment means blatantly lyin'

I'm a storyteller and the Bible is a bunch of stories about life and things that took place here on planet earth. It's a great example to use and a great reason to be happy about being a storyteller because the lessons of the land are always in stories.

I think hip hop allows us to talk about everything, and Africa is what I choose to talk about now. If people are not talking about Africa, that's them, that's cool, there's nothing wrong with that. But this is who I am, this is what I have to say, this is what I have to offer.

America is a melting pot for all different groups of people, historically. And it's rare that the story of all of these people will be told in the history books. So I always felt I had to find out my history for myself and research my roots.

To me, hip-hop's been dead for years. We all should know that. With that being said, then, the object of the game now is to make money off of exploiting it. That's what it's all about - get this money. That's basically what I'm saying.

What you call a infinite brawl, eternal souls clashin War gets deep, some beef is everlastin

I never see the whips niggas be claimin' they drivin, I guess 'entertainment' means blatantly lyin'.

You're supposed to be who you are. You're supposed to make music that is true to you.

I don't kill soloists only kill squads

I lay puzzle as I backtrack to earlier times, Nothing's equivalent to the New York state of mind

The Internet made the world smaller, so it's easier for people to hear your music. You don't necessarily need a radio record.

On the reals, all these crab niggaz know the deal, When we start the revolution, all they'll probably do is squeal.

I think you gotta always do things that keep you excited in an [rap music] industry that's so bullshit. When you know that you have so much energy and so much to give, it would be a shame if the facilitators of that aren't enthusiastic about you doing it, because you've been doing it for so long. So you just gotta figure out ways in this insane business to keep it fresh.

Through the lights cameras and action, glamour glitters and gold I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe.

I want to hear the artist. I want to hear them give me something that I can relate to, other than the fact that everything's about bragging.

My skin is an art gallery right, with paintings and crucifixes hoping to save me from all the dangers in the music business

I'm a reader, so when I go to bookstores I need (stuff) that's going to help me. There a big emptiness there and I want to help fill that through song.

People have stopped battling in hip hop, in the primitive sense, and the focus of the competitive element has shifted to the music. It's less about bragging and more about being the best lyrically and poetically.

Hip-hop is bigger than the South, hip-hop is bigger than New York.

I rap for listeners, blunt heads, fly ladies and prisoners

People afraid of criticism but I always put myself in a sacrificial position,they been know I ain't just rappin for fame

My first record - it was 1991. I was 16 years old. My first album came out when I was 20. So, I've been here that long and I still have the passion to do it.

Props is a true thug's wife.

I wanted to say what wasn't being said. I wanted to give people a real story. I wanted people to know people like me exist in the world.

You can't count a man out because one record went different direction. You gotta count the things that scored, not the misses.

All I need is one mic One beat, one stage One ni%$a frontin' my face on the front page Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib One god to show me how to do things his son did.

I used to carry a notebook to the studio. I don't do that no more 'cause I don't have the time to write anywhere but right there in the studio on the spot. So when you hear my stuff, know that I wrote it in the studio.