Top 482 Rappers Quotes & Sayings - Page 6

I can remember being a young kid, twelve, thirteen years old just with my headphones on, on the train, listening to rappers paint these vivid pictures. Listening to Mobb Deep and feeling like I was in Queensbridge even though I'm on the Southside of Chicago.

The best comedians and the best rappers can make you laugh and can make you cry... I believe I've been blessed with that gift to make you do just that.

I would go to the store, I would buy cassette tapes, and I would read the liner notes and sort of subconsciously creating the connections between the rappers that I was reading and the poets that they were teaching us in school.

There are so many rappers now that it's cluttering our culture. 90% of the time at a show there are more artists in the crowd than there are fans - it's too much. Too many people try to give you CD's.

Most rappers taste level ain't at my waist level. Turn up the bass 'til it's up in your face level.

I'm worried about myself. Glizzy gang, that's it. I'm not worried about no other rappers.

There's something about being any kind of entertainer that is acting. You have to put on a show. Things you wouldn't do in your life, you do on stage. You have to let go. And that's extra hard for rappers. We have a tendency to, quote unquote, keep it real. As an actor, you have to be able to humiliate yourself. Do whatever it takes.

I looked at the rap community like street kids wanting their own brand. But now I look at that period with the rappers in the 90s as a trend of the moment. What it taught me was never to follow a trend, because trends move on.

I have a personal relationship with Dizzee Rascal - I know him, he's cool - so this is no disrespect to him or any other British rappers who tried to make it in America, like Wiley and Tinie Tempah, but the type of music they were making to be accepted over there - it doesn't translate.

All the other rappers around me aren't saying anything worthwhile. They're lost in rap: all they do is tell you they're a sick MC and they're better than you. I don't want to look like all these other little punk, dress-up, fake, manufactured artists. I'm not a rapper. I'm an activist.

I know rappers who are grandparents and we still haven't conquered politics, social development, philanthropy and these are areas, as we become our parents and grandparents, that we need to hold the torch of what makes the world run and what makes communities better.

Nas is one of my favorite rappers because you don't get any of that flashy stuntin'; you get the real, just raw bars. The way he tells stories and his vibe, I think we would make great music together.

When I did 'Funkdafied' with JD, he was like, 'Okay, look Brat. I'ma tell you now - female rappers pretty much only go gold. So if it doesn't do whatever, don't be disappointed.' And I was like, 'Okay... I just want to do music.'

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling.

If I was with some other rappers who aren't as polished, or I was the only rapper, I don't think I would be where I'm, nor would I be rapping. They pushed me, we pushed each other on every record.

You have rappers saying "stay off drugs, go to school" - empty verbal behavior. I think all of this became institutionalized in the early '90s. And it's become more and more solidified, more and more entrenched.

Yeah, if you go too far, like there's some rappers that use words that just be a little too out there, it makes it where someone doesn't really know what you're talking about and don't really have the time to sit and try to understand.

I've never been the straight rapper that is going to stand in a cipher and battle all day. I started off battle rapping, but to me, making songs became more important than freestyles... I've met many rappers who can freestyle but can't make a record.

What we thought brings us a disadvantage, brings us an advantage against the American black rappers, because they look all the same, with their training outfits and sneakers, you know? But we didn't know this, it wasn't calculated.

It's only five rappers out of Atlanta who bussin and I'm one of 'em; the other four you know who you are; but if you gotta think twice (well) shawty ya ain't nice; regardless of ya publishin' deal ya can't write

I am passionate about music and my work to the bottom of my very soul, but I also very much enjoy good clothes and some of the finer things in life. Rappers do, too, and perhaps it's one of the reasons I've been welcomed so warmly into their world.

90% of the people that rap are just rappers, they rap what they see, a lot of them exploit other peoples lives, I've been through it all, I don't glorify it cos when I was in jail, I wasn't like YES I'm in jail now I can say that in my rap.

I think that when it comes to emceeing that there's so many different approaches. You have your party rappers, which pretty much is where it all originated from. With DJ Hollywood, Lovebug Starski, Eddie Cheeba, and all those guys in the '70s. Basic party rap.

Nothing is more untoward than a grown man tasking another with snapping a pic expressly so he can 'flex the 'fit.' It's tacky -self-aggrandizing - and speaks to an existential neediness typically reserved for failed actresses and phenomenally successful rappers.

I can't expect rappers to be politicized when Americans are not socially motivated enough to care about their own lives and public policy as much as they were even 20 years ago. But I'm compelled to make the music I make regardless.

To have the sound I have, to pretty much close out a festival, it's something I didn't see much of in school. It was always pop singers and rappers. It's so cool to see that space for R&B getting bigger.

We've now got a whole generation of jazz musicians who have been brought up with hip-hop. We've grown up alongside rappers and DJs; we've heard this music all our life. We are as fluent in J Dilla and Dr Dre as we are in Mingus and Coltrane.

When I made '1983,' there were a bunch of tracks that were in the early drafts that didn't make it because they just sounded like tracks for rappers, and that's not really the sound I look for when I produce my own albums.

I wrote and produced millions and millions of selling records, so my publishing company alone was worth millions of dollars. I didn't have to work anymore in life because when the rappers started sampling... I'm the most sampled artist in history.

I just save my money, man. I don't even try to enjoy it like these other rappers; they having fun and they lit, but they gon' be broke later on. I be savin', I be chillin'. It feels good to know I got it, but it feel better to know I'ma keep it too.

You can't speak for the people unless you're able to walk amongst the people. And how many of these rappers out here actually hang out with regular people?

Along with 'Free,' where I sing quite a bit, there are additional songs on 'Skin' where you can hear my voice in the background - lots of 'oohs' and 'aahs.' But more often than not, I use my vocals to prompt other rappers and singers to feel calmer, better, bolder.

Straight from the heart, I represent hip hop I be three albums deep, but I don't wanna go pop Too many candy rappers seem to be at the top Too much candy is no good, so now I'm closing the shop.

What Jazzy Jeff and rappers like him talk about is phony stuff. They're not into street raps, into telling what's really happening out there. They're talking about what the white world and the white kids can identity with.

And I learned a lot from working with this kid, and I think he's gonna be a big star. Remember the name, Tim Dark, because he has something about his voice that's different from all the other rappers, even though his style is similar.

It's gonna sound so boring to most people. There have been times when I've been told, 'Oh, you're doing an album about physics? I hope it's not boring.' They don't get the idea. Because rappers are so one-dimensional, so narrow-minded, it comes off corny.

I've worked with incredible producers in the past, but when me and El-P got in a room, there was no way I was going to let off his head because not only was he one of the greatest producers I heard, he was one of the illest rappers I had ever heard.

I've been around a long time, and when I was at the top of the hill, I was very ahead of my time! Evidence of that is that my music is still current today - you know, rappers sample it all the time. So, rather than compromise my artistic integrity, I concentrated on movies.

No [other rappers are on my level], none of them. Here, let me put it like this in the sky, there are a million stars, but when the sun appears, you see none of them. I am the sun.

I'm also working on another independent film called Roxanne, Roxanne, about Roxanne Shante, who was one of the first African American battle rappers from Brooklyn. It is produced by Forest Whitaker and Pharrell [williams], so I'm really in great hands.

The attitudes of many police organizations were extremely negative to the prospect of Rap, and many officials weren't afraid to say that they were against it. To them, Rappers were just criminals waiting to get caught.

I've done movies where I've had to cast actors and teach them to rap, and cast rappers and teach them to act.

The hip hop industry is most likely owned by gays. I happen to think there's a gay mafia in hip hop. Not rappers - the editorial presidents of magazines, the PDs at radio stations, the people who give you awards at award shows.

I enjoy female rappers, not because they're female but because I can connect to them more.

Rich people are so eccentric, and I don't think people really realize. Especially by the turn of the century, they were living like rappers, and there was no income tax. They are some of the most fascinating people, and I am endlessly fascinated.

If an athlete plays the guitar, they say, 'That's so cool, he can play the guitar.' But if a guy raps, they say, 'Please don't be another rapper,' only because the rappers are so bad. I promise I'm not anything like that.

I can relate to anyone. I can hang out with stoners, skaters, surfers, stockbrokers, lawyers, athletes, rappers. I feel I can hang out with any group of people and find common ground to talk with them.

Rappers have always thought they were better than me. And the media has always thought that I was not relevant to hip-hop, so therefore, they didn't have to mention me.

A lot of people are burning' C.D.'s. There are a lot of people burnin' peoples stuff, and that hurts a lot of rappers.

For years I've been seeing my young brothers wearing Scarface T-shirts, John Gotti T-shirts, Rick James T-shirts. We don't have any icons or idols to look up to, just rappers and professional athletes.

[Big Pun] loved the fact that I could sing, everybody around us were rappers. A lot of people didn't know that Pun really, really loved r&b music.

A couple years ago it was really hard for me to sing, because there's so much pressure in hip-hop to be a certain way. My biggest thing right now is doing me, because I'm not like other rappers.

I am the beast, Feed me rappers or feed me beats

Gangsta rappers, they call them. Not nearly as gangsta as the things that inspire them.. you know, a gangsta government that we operate under.

As with all the other rappers I've worked with, Biggie and I shared common ground. Even though Biggie grew up in Brooklyn and I grew up in Chicago, we came from the same 'hood.

In America, they don't need to look outside their country for anything, so they definitely don't need to look elsewhere for rappers with weird accents that they have to get accustomed to, which is like homework to them.

Rap is hardcore street music but there are women out there who can hang with the best male rappers. What holds us back is that girls tend to rap in these high, squeaky voices. It's irritating. You've gotta rap from the diaphragm.

I think what sets a New York rapper apart from other rappers from other places is just being from New York.

If you look back, you get stuck in a year. I've seen rappers and singers get stuck in 2002 or 2005, and they can't get out.

A lot of rappers don't have to go through what I had to go through as a singer. I was always in a bubble that they put me in, but I was always punching out. It was a tough line to walk.