Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I think it's important to evolve and grow and take risks creatively, instead of repeating yourself and doing the same thing over and over.
My music is very reminiscent of the sound I grew up on and the place where that happened. It's a combination of everything I'm inspired by.
I don't go in the studio to make music that won't matter. I go in every night to try to make a point and make the best music that I can make.
In the past, my process would start with a sample of another song, and I'd chop it up and use that as the basis of the song that I was making.
A great song can come from anybody. A great performance can come from anybody. It doesn't matter who you are, and that's truly what I believe.
I'm not inherently the most politically or, like, socially conscious rapper, you know? You're not just going to wake up tomorrow and be Common.
It's definitely been a long, long... long, long, long, long, long journey since I was selling burnt CD's out of my backpack in downtown Oakland.
Growing up in the Bay, I was still looking for a lot of East Coast hip-hop. I had an older homie put me on to a lot of stuff like Nas' 'Illmatic.'
Thing is, I wasn't in the library, didn't study too much, didn't get the best grades, but honestly, I didn't party a lot either. I stayed in a lot.
Success is just being able to do what I love for a living, spend all my time doing it, connect with fans, and continue that for a long f - king time.
I just have more Yves Saint Laurent in my closet, but it is pretty much the same - I just wear black almost 365 days of the year. I am married to it.
That's the nature of this business. Something that took ten years to make can crumble in an instant. It could be snatched away from you at any moment.
I've dreamed of being on the road, traveling and touring, for as long as I've been into doing music. It's what I live for. I just wanna be Willie Nelson.
Sometimes you wake up the next morning after making a lot of bad decisions and have this nonchalant reaction like, 'These Things Happen' - what can I say?
Rapping was something I always wanted to do, so after school, my friends and I would catch the bus to my house and just sit there writing songs, every day.
Me personally, I will always be a fan at the end of the day. No matter how big this gets, I still look up to other artists and people I respect creatively.
That raw connection between the two performers is something you can't fully plan. You just go with it and get lost in that moment and feed off of each other.
If you push yourself to stay hungry, you're always working towards at least taking steps forward. If you're taking steps forward, then you're making progress.
I was fortunate to have teachers that were flexible with allowing me to miss more class than I was supposed to be able to, for the sake of being able to tour.
The biggest thing for me is the new music. I'm playing a lot of new music that is not released yet on my tours. Seeing the reaction to that is super inspiring.
I've never been critically acclaimed. I've never been nominated for no Grammy. I've never been on no magazine cover. It's almost taboo to say I'm actually good.
I think my music is so personal that it lets people in. And they identify with me more because of that, you know, so it's like my story; it's who I am as a person.
A song or an album is never really done. You can work on it forever, but knowing when to call it a day and knowing when to walk away from it is extremely important.
I grew up in Oakland, California, and there was a really active scene in the Bay Area. Everyone else knew it as the 'Hyphy Movement' of Mac Dre, E-40, and The Pack.
It's one thing to turn up and jump around stage and give people a good time - that's obviously a big part of this - but I'll always get deeper than that as an artist.
I've seen what you can do in this grassroots, do-it-yourself world, and I've seen how far that can get you. To be iconic, you still need the gatekeepers to open the doors.
Time is a finite resource that you can't get back. I have the same 24 hours you have, and you get the same 24 hours as me. As you rise, so does you chance for opportunity.
Just wearing all black comes from Johnny Cash. I'm on the road so much that if I wear all black my clothes never get dirty. You can't tell if I've worn the same shirt twice.
Just wearing all black comes from Johnny Cash. I'm on the road so much that if I wear all black, my clothes never get dirty. You can't tell if I've worn the same shirt twice.
I was 14 years old when I started rapping and I was terrible. I fell in love with it though and when that happens with me I become super passionate and go all the way with it.
When I started making music, I was so heavy into the hyphy movement. That's something you only know so much about if you were right there living in it, submerged in the culture.
I've definitely grown and evolved as a person, as an artist, you know. Just in terms of my style, my taste, my influences, everything... That's a part of being an artist I think.
In my opinion, creative control means a lot, I feel like I'm really in touch with who my fans are and what they like about my music, and I'm able to communicate directly with them.
We used to approach a small 400-person show like an arena show, as if I was a star and I was coming out on stage in front of screaming people and that I was to be larger than life.
I just hear a beat and start mumbling words. I just hear sounds and rhythms, and it just kind of comes intuitively. Formatting a song, figuring out a flow, how I respond to the beat.
I always think I'm going to record a lot on tour but it's always hard to fit it in the schedule, and there's a whole lotta' other extra curricular activities that happen on the road.
Me personally, I'm real close to my mom. She raised me. It was a single-parent home situation. She did everything: cooked, worked two jobs, came home late, but she loved me to death.
'Downtown Love.' I made that with one of my homies in New Orleans. The story is tragic, and the song is emotional. It's my favorite. I'm most proud of that; it's such a creative piece.
I think every artist's next work will reflect a new chapter in their autobiography. Each album tells a story about where they were at during a particular period and how they have evolved.
It's an honor to be able to tour with somebody I grew up listening to and somebody I look up to. When you're around somebody like E-40, all you can do is watch and learn, and soak up game.
I feel like if you're stuck doing the same thing your whole career you've got to be doing something wrong. Unless you're getting great results from it or you're just comfortable in that spot.
I think if you're constantly reinvesting into your content and giving the fans stuff, then you can continue to tour. You can continue to sell the merch and monetize the popularity of the brand.
If we're deciding about merch pieces, t-shirts or hats, they have to be well designed and cool enough for somebody to want to buy it and then wear it and walk around advertising me and my music.
There's multiple ways I express myself. Music is my first love and will always come first. But, there are other areas and industries I'm interested in that reflect different aspects of my lifestyle.
When you're choosing the track list and the sequencing, it's important to make sure that there's some strong concepts on there and that it matters and it says something... that it sticks with people.
When I first decided I wanted to make beats and write songs and stuff like that, it wasn't like I sat down and the first thing I wrote was even halfway legit. It took a while to find my way through it.
When you put a tour together you really just think about who you'd like on your bill, who would make sense and who you would want to live with basically for a couple months and be around with and work with.
Anything back in New Orleans is definitely nostalgic. I really played my first shows of my life and learned to perform here. I learned how to work a stage and how to connect with a crowd. It all started here.
Whenever I perform I try to connect with the crowd and give off energy so when they walk away from the show its remarkable and its something they talk about it, like 'damn I cant wait to come back to my show.'
I was making all my own beats, and I really liked sampling stuff, like old '50s and '60s pop and soul and doo-wop records. I was chopping those up and putting loops and drums on them and just rapping over them.