Top 163 Quotes & Sayings by Killer Mike - Page 2

My biggest failure was trying to start and run a music label. The music industry was dying, and I wasn't ready to help other people the way that they needed to be helped. I was trying to, and I was stifling myself with it.

My mom had did a wonderful job of giving me two great dads: I had a biological and non-biological dad.

I've been watching wrestling since I was three years old.

The fact that I'm in a group that inspires others artists is just heaven to me.

I'm a student of Ice Cube and Scarface, which means the stuff I rap about is not radio-friendly, and it's very opinionated. and it's very much from the perspective of a black man in America, and our opinion ain't always popular when we have a political opinion.

Rap, to me, is communal. It's something you do with your friends. So becoming a member of a group was the dream.

I've been a music fan all my life, and you know the difference when the musicians care.

A lot of time, when you're poor and you ain't got but 15, 20 bucks in your pocket - if you can't change your shoes, you can change your look with a haircut.

I don't let people talk bad about Rick Ross around me. Like, you can't do it. He owns - I've heard a legend - 30 Wing Stops in the areas he grew up near. You can never say anything about him. If that represents ten jobs per place, that's 310 jobs provided.

You a role model by way of someone will model after your role. They'll model themselves after what they perceive is success. That doesn't mean they take your morality and virtue seriously. They want what you want, and they're willing to do what you do to get it.

Bernie Sanders is the only politician who, consistently for 50 years, has taken that social justice platform into politics.

Jake 'The Snake' Roberts of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was the darkest! I mean, he could've been a movie villain, he was so intense! He also had the hardest finishing move of all time, the DDT.

I like the New York style of funk, the California style of funk, but the South I never felt like - and Atlanta particularly - got the credit for taking their lessons and progressing on it.

No Child Left Behind left a lot of kids behind.

I have white friends who have the Confederate flag on their license plates, and I have no issue with that if they see that as a matter of heritage. But I do not think it should ever fly over a state, city, county building, or school, for the simple reason that it represents secession from the Union.

My grandmother had been a part of the civil rights movement.

I'm an alpha male.

In my 20s, I was just angry.

I don't want to be walking around angry and feeling rage.

Nas is truly one of the greatest lyricists to ever come out of Queens, which has produced more great MCs than any other borough. He's one of the greatest MCs of my lifetime and in the world. He's also a friend.

A lot of times, elections are lost, and the hope of the public is lost because they don't turn out.

I think all politics is local.

I'm not going to restrict myself as an artist.

An army took on the Union; an army lost. That nation, the Confederate States, lost. And if - that flag - in terms of publicly or state-sponsored things, or local or county or city-sponsored things - should be forever wiped from the memory, because that side lost.

You do not fly the flags of losers over the winner's country.

The best advice that I've gotten from Nas is honestly to just be me and to keep staying true to myself. It took me a long time to figure out how to pop, but then, when you get famous, people are kind of like, 'Oh, well, we don't want as much of you.'

Freedom is not something you're even trying to fight for; you are free. Go. Make sure you live free every day.

My hair is dry. A lot of shampoos and greasers don't work with me, and so I started playing around with a chemist on a product that'll work with me.

I was raised a black child in the South, where you're indoctrinated into a religion that an oppressor gave you.

I write in the booth and memorize in rehearsals.

I'm a black man who grew up in America. I'm a father of four children. They don't all have the same mother. I own a business.

For me, muscle cars are a tribute to American ingenuity.

I grew up working class in Atlanta.

I used to have go-karts and mopeds and motorcycles when I was a kid. Then my grandpa let me drive a real car at about 13 or 14 and I just... I never cared about bikes again after that.

Atlanta is unique to me. You got poor black people, but I also saw this: I saw black doctors, lawyers, educators. All you gotta do is want to be it to see it, and once you see something, it can be a reality.

Rap is supposed to scare soccer moms.

I maintain hope that this country can be what it's supposed to be.

I'm a man's man.

I shouldn't have to be preparing my children that the world is going to be unfair to them for the rest of their lives.

As an artist, that's our job - to be with you in times of celebration and when the world is kicking your ass.

The motivation to me is to make money and not be dependent upon the shallow pool called the entertainment world or the rap world or the hip-hop world.

What I am is an encourager. I encourage all who deserve freedom to fight for that. And if you can't win by yourself, then find other people to be in solidarity with.

People tend to think of gentrification in terms of race because it's presented that way, and I think it's presented that way because in poor cities that's what's really going on. Beyond that, I think it's presented that way as a way for the people who are really pushing it to make it just a black problem, so people don't care.

Being an adult, you've already suffered enough from your own mistakes, and the world, to come to this as a humble human being. So it's not like, "I'm going to do the right thing because it advances me," as much as it's like, "I'm going to do the right thing because this puts me closest to the dream I had as a 10-year-old kid."

This is jazz, this is funk, this is soul, this is gospel This is sanctified sick, this is player Pentecostal. This is church front pew, Amen, pulpit, What my people need and the opposite of bullshit.

I love art. It really changes my mood and wakes me up.

When you say you want to talk about racial justice, that`s not the same as I want to do something about racial justice. Saying I want to hold police accountable is doing something. Saying that I want to take money out of politics, big money, is doing something.

Ronald Reagan was an actor. Not at all a factor, Just an employee of the country's real masters. Just like the Bushes, Clinton and Obama, Just another talkin' head tellin' lies on teleprompters. If you don't believe the theory, then argue with this logic: Why did Reagan and Obama both go after Gaddafi? We invaded sovereign soil, goin' after oil Takin' countries as a hobby paid for by the oil lobby, Same as Iraq and Afghanistan. And Ahmadinejad sayin' they comin' for Iran.

I love Dr. King, but violence might be necessary; Cause when you live on MLK and it gets very scary, You might have to pull your AK, send one to the cemetery.

I feel worn down as a human being who has to constantly justify their existence to other human beings because I'm a minority

I'm just seeing as I grow older, and hopefully wiser, that a lot of things I see from a race perspective are class problems too, so I should be advocating for all.

I don't trust the church or the government, and anything the church or the government tells me I assume to be a lie or a conspiracy, until proven true.

Our feelings can be hurt, but you can take a yoga class, you can pray, you can play some basketball - you can figure out things for your hurt feelings.

God really exists, I tell you like this: It resides inside. And anybody tell you different, Just selling you religion, Tryin' to keep your ass in line.

I'll always push for what I believe in. That's what you're supposed to do. If you're an American, you're supposed to be part of the political process, especially if you've been denied it.

I would just encourage everybody to just talk your opinion more, allow other people and fight for other people to [express theirs].

Most rappers are black men. If you're a black man, you owe something to the community that you came from. If you're rapping about the community that you came from, and you're romanticizing parts of it for the entertainment of people who don't look like you, you certainly owe something to the community.

I have searched all night and day for new and better words that could express my feelings and fear for the people of this country. I found no new words. I only have no hope-filled insight to deliver. I only have this warning to all Americans: Whatever this country is willing to do to the least of us, it will one day do to us all.

I like his consistency, because Bernie Sanders talk - it boils down to the American people. His one thing is the American people.

Being a black rapper is like being a Southern, socialite woman: You're always worried about appearances.