Top 231 Quotes & Sayings by Rakim

I've always tried to insert consciousness and spirituality in my records, interpreting the writings of all cultures and religions and how they apply to life in modern times.

People think the older you get, the wacker you get. I think the older I get, the better I get.

I had a lot of respect for Prodigy. He brought the hood to the booth. When we were trying to shape this rap thing into something, he was one of the cats I respected for bringing the hood into the booth.

When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn't go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.

Eminem is a master.

Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks - you can tell what he raps about and what he's been through is very similar. You've got a lot of rappers that rap about what they've heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.

I'm a fan of Jay-Z, from the negotiating table to the booth.

When you listen to old-school music, you can smell your mother's food in the kitchen. You can feel where you was when you first heard that song. That's what's beautiful about music. It's for everyone, but we all have individual memories that make us love it.

You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, 'Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. 'Yes, sir. No sir.' Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That's your job.'

Social media gives a lot of people a platform where they can express their feelings. I like to do mine through songs. I let info build up. In some way, it translates into paper whenever I sit down.

When you look at hip-hop, I want to do that: to spit fire and take our best from the ashes to build our kingdom; to recognize all the regional styles, conscious lyrics, the tracks, underground, mainstream, the way we treat each other. Lose the garbage and rebuild our scene.

My approach to writing rhymes went hand in hand with the music. I'd try to make different rhythms with my rhymes on the track by tripping up patterns, using multi-syllable words, different syncopations. I'd try to be like a different instrument.

I was always a laid-back, subdued person, and I just try to let that speak through my music.

I love Kanye for that. Being a producer, making beats, and being a rapper. He does it all.

The laws are gonna have to change. And it's 2016. We can't keep using all the laws that was made back in the 1700s. We're gonna have to understand that times have changed.

I can't look at TV without seeing something that's been influenced by rap. Even commercials for cereal. When I was small, I was a fan of cartoon characters - now the cartoon characters are rapping!

Maybe I'm too sensitive to the struggle, but I think a lot of people that listen to music are trying to escape.

Sometimes you can't forgive, but you try to forget.

You know, 'Paid in Full' is a classic album, man. It kind of got me to where I am now, so I can never get tired of 'Paid in Full.'

Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I've been around since 1986.

I just appreciate the love that I get and support from hip-hop.

I try to stay true to my style, and I understand the foundation of my style and where it came from. But at the same time, you take that experience and learn different ways to write, different ways to turn on that creative energy.

Age don't count in the booth.

Subconsciously, Islam took over me, so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.

Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music, man - it's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.

My aunt Ruth Brown was a jazz musician. I got hooked on it at a young age, understanding what John Coltrane was doing playing two notes on the saxophone at the same time, which is impossible.

I love what I do. I'm still humble.

Without no disrespect to any artist, there's a lot of degrading music out there as far as degrading the culture and degrading society as well. That's individuals that choose to make that kind of music.

The young kids out there doing their thing, I can't knock them.

In New York, they kind of rode with me from day one: they understand who I am.

My mother sang jazz and opera - she even performed at the Apollo on Amateur Night.

Back in the day, rappers were 'bump bump bump ba bump ba bump.' They was rhyming like that, but I was like, 'bababa bump bump babum ba babump bababa bump.'

As I grew up, a lot of the music was made to uplift the spirit.

I love, you know, a lot of jazz, John Coltrane.

I love what I live, and I live Islam, so I applied it to everything I do. I applied it to my rhymes, and I felt that I wanted the people to know what I knew.

I got a lot of vinyl, a lot of music in general in the house.

Every generation wants that real hip-hop. And I've always been able to bring that.

I try to support my kids in what they do and, at the same time, not push them towards anything.

When you're dealing with a bunch of different producers, you gotta make sure the chemistry fits.

No Doubt is one of the groups that I think everybody listens to, man, and everybody loves Gwen Stefani.

Don't even go to the studio if you don't think that your music's going to do something. You're wasting your time and my time.

To know that I was being heard on the radio, it made me feel as if I was, I guess, spread across New York. It was incredible.

We need a few more Kanyes, people that's really passionate about hip-hop and who keep it alive.

You grow, you mature, you live, and you learn. You get a little wiser, and you learn better ways to handle things.

We need the media to know that some of us are really passionate about music.

The truth never wears out.

You come up, you love music, and then business interferes.

I love Jay-Z, I love Kanye, and I praise the way he's been able to bring more business out of the jungle.

You can't have 12 records on your album and none of them sound alike. You gotta kind of have something to make them say, 'That sounds like Rakim.'

My thing is, you have to let young artists be young artists.

I always went left to what everybody else was doing. I'm used to going against the grain.

Being a new artist, I was trying to make a good album and hope that people like Kool Moe Dee and Melle Mel and some of the firstborns appreciated it. I was being influenced by them brothers there. That's where I got my start and my first listen.

Everything I did on the 'Paid in Full' album and those first three albums, I wrote everything right in the studio.

When I was in high school, the energy in hip-hop at that point was the park energy... I was just trying to develop my style at that point, and I think, when you're trying to find your style, you find yourself.

I'm a fan of hip-hop as well. I like everybody who keeps the game on their toes and keep it pushing.

The golden age was when people were starting to understand what hip-hop was and how to use it. I was lucky to come up then. Everybody wanted to be original and have substance; it was somewhat conscious... There was an integrity that people respected.

I started studying in '85 and got knowledge of self and started spitting. What was going on was taking the understanding of what I was reading and applying it with my life and applying it with my rhymes.

Jada, Styles P, the LOX, period. You throw on one of their joints... I'm in the whip; I try to keep my cool in the whip. I don't like bouncing around, getting my crazy on, but it's certain joints you gotta wild out. Roll the window down, blast the joints, let it be heard. That's one of them groups that bang it out.

I always say a rapper is like a halfback in the NFL. You got about seven years, then it's a wrap.

When I broke up with Eric B., I went on a little hiatus. Then all I was trying do is find producers. It's real hard, man.