A Quote by R-Truth
My influences, going back through the history of rap, talk about Doug E. Fresh, Kool Moe D, Eric B. & Rakim, Public Enemy.
Related Quotes
I think that Kool Moe Dee birthed Rakim, Rakim birthed Nas.
I have become their idol. Like, Busta Rhymes has called me twice to come to rap with him, and Big Daddy Kane and Eric B and Rakim, I made a trip to do things with them.
The first rhymes I wrote, I was 9. It was Kool Moe Dee-style.
I grew up on listening to, like, Mantronix and BDP and EPMD and Kool G Rap and Ultramag and Public Enemy and Fat Boys and Run DMC and a lot of those early records, those Rubin-era records. Those were always snare- and stab-heavy records.
I was heavily influenced by Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Caz, but I kind of wanted to take it somewhere else.
The hip-hop that I really connected with was Public Enemy, KRS-One, Ice Cube, and N.W.A. That late '80s and early '90s era. The beginning of gangster rap and the beginning of politically conscious rap. I had a very immature, adolescent feeling of, "Wow, I can really connect with these people through the stories they're telling in this music."
Before, you only had one Public Enemy and one Rakim and one Salt 'N' Pepa. Now, people have got the formula, and some of them are just doing it for the cheque. It's kind of watered down.
I really love rap music. I grew up in the '80s and '90s with Public Enemy, N.W.A., LL Cool J - I'm a hip-hop encyclopedia. But I got kind of frustrated with the chauvinistic side of rap music, the one that makes it hard to write songs about love and relationships.
Rap is the only super-current music. If you're into reggae or dancehall, and you don't know Bob Marley, then you don't really know what you're listening to. But if you're listening to rap, and you're 15, you're like, 'Grandmaster Flash? Who's that? Public Enemy? Yeah, my dad told me about them once.' And that's just how it is.
Having my poems set to music by Eric Moe has completely knocked my socks off.
When I think back to my influences and icons musically, they were my icons musically because, for example, I would look at Rakim and be like man he said the freshest things and then I look at him and he would have on the pair of Nikes that I wanted and I'm like, "ma' please!" It was everything. Now, I sort of feel like if you are fresh then your music doesn't have to be that good because people are so keyed into the fashion. That's just the times I guess.
Someone wrote in the New York Times recently that if Donald Trump was allowed to go through with his plans, he'd become one of history's major human rights violators and ethnic cleansers, just below the Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin league. But people don't care. Trump goes on Jimmy Fallon's show and that spineless puff of a talk show host praises Trump for being such an "off the cuff" talker and providing "fresh air." Fresh air! What's fresh about racism? it comes out of the darkest dankest rottenest human cellar!
Being bi-racial and being from the country, I can talk to guys like Travis Frederick from Wisconsin and Doug Free from Wisconsin. And then I can go over and talk to Dez Bryant. I mean, think about the two different standpoints you need to have a real conversation with both, to really understand what they've been through.
Nas, Big L, Rakim, Jay-Z, Eminem, those was all my influences, but I didn't start recording until I was 16.
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.
The difference between me and other athletes is that I'm speaking on things that I go through that I know other people go through. I think a lot of times the mistake in music if you're broke, rap about being broke, if you're sensitive, rap about being sensitive, 'cause there are other sensitive people. If you're sensitive but you talk about being a tough person that doesn't care about anything, people will call your bluff.
Related Authors
Adam Cole Quotes
American
Wrestler
Bill Goldberg Quotes
American
Wrestler
Bobby Lashley Quotes
American
Wrestler
Bret Hart Quotes
Canadian
Wrestler
Chris Jericho Quotes
Canadian
Wrestler
Daniel Bryan Quotes
American
Wrestler
Dean Ambrose Quotes
American
Wrestler
Diamond Dallas Page Quotes
American
Wrestler
Dolph Ziggler Quotes
American
Wrestler
Gail Kim Quotes
Canadian
Wrestler
Jeff Hardy Quotes
American
Wrestler
Matt Hardy Quotes
American
Wrestler
Randy Orton Quotes
American
Wrestler
Seth Rollins Quotes
American
Wrestler
Shawn Michaels Quotes
American
Wrestler
The Miz Quotes
American
Wrestler