A Quote by Rakim

I had a little more freedom when I started sampling because you could actually do what you wanted to do. — © Rakim
I had a little more freedom when I started sampling because you could actually do what you wanted to do.
I think if I wanted to get to a point where I could actually grow in my music, I had to almost step away from sampling so much and start making the kind of music that people wanted to sample.
I don't think anybody ever started a great business because they wanted to make a little more cash. They had a dream. They wanted to better their life.
The origin of nursing started out with prostitutes, who would go care for people in jail. That was back when nobody wanted to go to the hospital because it was basically a place that you went to die. It started progressing with the visiting nurses in the South. The women started wearing these outfits to make it look like they were more sophisticated and so that they could be more respected. They started recruiting women from good education backgrounds because they wanted to make it a more respected profession.
My comfort zone musically, I wouldn't necessarily say I have one now. But, when I did have one, I can definitely identify that it was sampling. I had to identify it honestly as sampling because I started to become dependent on using samples in order to make a track rather than being dependent on myself to make the track because I maybe didn't trust myself enough then.
I started doing comedy just as myself, because I thought, "This is what's expected, you're meant to tell stories and do observations." And then I started to realize that I wanted to mix it up a bit, so I started to doing songs, and I had a little keyboard onstage and would bring in little props. Then I thought about the idea of talking about a character and becoming the character onstage. So, it sort of morphed into being stand-up that was more character based, and I found that's the stuff I got the better reaction from and was more exciting for me.
I didn't sing for years and years, but I started playing harp when I was maybe 9 or 10. I had actually wanted to play for years leading up to that, but no teacher in our little town would take me on as a student, because I was too young.
I think I had more freedom when I began making films. I did not know what could not be done. I was naive. I did what I wanted to. As you gain awareness, you start losing freedom.
I started swimming when I was four because my brother wanted to join a swim team, and I wanted to do what he did. They said I had to be six, but if I could swim a lap, then I could participate. So I swam a lap, and the rest is history.
Had more confidence than I probably should have in high school. But I do remember feeling like I wish I could physically mature a little faster, fill out. In college it started to happen a little bit more, and my confidence started to grow - then I got out to L.A., and that got squashed immediately.
In the middle of this it was good to have some moments in which whatever was left of you could sit in silence. When you could remember. When the evidence that had gathered could be sorted. And it was a difficulty if another person imagined these moments were their property. Your life got sliced from two sides like a supermarket salami until there was nothing left in the middle. You were the bits that had been given away right and left to others. Because they wanted the piece of you that belonged to them. Because they wanted more. Because they wanted passion. And you did not have it.
If I could've picked a birthday it would've been on Halloween. Yeah, it's always been my favorite holiday. Not because it was my birthday, but actually because, I think it was the freedom, you know? When you were a little kid, you got to go out and be an adult for a couple of hours. You got to, like, just go out with your friends and knock on peoples' doors and be nuts and pull pranks and stuff like that. You could be whoever you wanted to be, you know, I guess that was the appeal to it.
It's funny how film is the slowest art form to adapt to freedom. It's had freedom all along. It could've done whatever it wanted to. You know the same freedom that do-it-yourself punk and post-punk musicians had in the late 70s and ever since. That's about the time I started getting interested in film, and I assumed that film would be moving along with the other pop culture forms. Its finally done it but it's taken decades for it to catch up just to basement band level.
I have taken every amount of creative liberty and freedom that I can get and I've actually managed to push it. I would say being the champion gives me that freedom because you really get a little more carte blanche.
It was hard at school because, growing up, some people wanted to be friends with me just because they wanted to get to my dad and say that they had met him and had gone to our house. I didn't understand it at the time, but the older I got and the more aware of it I became, it started becoming hard.
So after those Games, I continued to compete that season and the year after that. I really had the goal of being intentional. I didn't want to do big tricks because it was an X Games final or an Olympics final. I wanted to call my own shots. I started to do that and I started to have more fun than I ever knew I could have.
I actually started modeling in Ethiopia, because that's where I grew up, and I started out by just doing little fashion shows for school, and I liked it so much that I started pursuing it.
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