Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It's always been about shelf life. Long-term parking, not short-term. That's why I take the time that I do when I write.
When I was growing up, I never really ate vegetables. I was just a hot dog, hamburger, French fry person like most kids.
Some MCs don't take the time to take a beat home or just vibe with it and just figure out, 'How do I attack this track?'
I could write about a pencil if I wanted to. You just take it back deep enough, all the way back to the tree it came from.
When I was growing up, to be an emcee meant to write the most clever, intellectual, and wittiest rap. And that's what we did.
In chess, you have to bring all the pieces into the game. It is about development. In writing, you have to develop the story.
Some of us don't respect water. We waste it and pour it out. But a lot of disastrous stuff involves water. Tsunamis. Hurricanes.
I like science and mathematics. When I say mathematics, I don't mean algebra or math in that sense, but the mathematics of things.
I've directed all my videos throughout my whole career, 'cause that's leeway. I was granted that opportunity to be able to do that.
When I was trekking across Brooklyn, looking for MC battles - and there were plenty of them - I never dreamed I'd be at this podium.
I played on a 10'x10' chessboard at a hotel in Miami. The pieces were heavy, and I got tired just making a move. Not cool with that.
I never really thought I had an extensive vocabulary like that, and I'm not an avid reader. I didn't read a lot growing up - at all.
As far as being a vegetarian, it's a moral thing, a health thing, a conscious thing - a combination of all. I think it's better to be that way.
I was always interested in skateboarding, BMX bike riding, flipping, gymnastics. Anything with tumbling, turning, twisting, and extreme sports.
Before hip-hop existed, we were listening to soul songs from the '70s. I grew up with Motown, Elton John, and the Beatles. To me, that's good music.
I think, for myself, as an artist, the progression is a lyrical progression and what I choose to target my lyrics at and how I construct the rhymes.
Hip-hop is my vehicle for scientific enlightenment. It wasn't until my music career matured where I was exposed to science as an intellectual pursuit.
Writing, for me, really started in the '70s as a young child. I used to read a lot of nursery rhymes, and I learned a lot of those rhymes word for word.
Moog has been incorporated in a lot of our music. I know RZA has several of those machines. So, it did play a major role in a lot of music we were doing.
I throw raps that attack like the Japs on Pearl Harbor. MC's be out like bank robbers, Fleeing the scene, to be a sole survivor; DJ...the getaway driver.
I wasn't raised a vegetarian. I wish I was, though. I mean, that's really the best way to go. I just learned at a young age and stopped eating some things.
Rap - it's a childhood passion. Writing rhymes, it's something that I was doing before rap records even existed. And I will continue to write until I can't write anymore.
When the Black Lips sent a track over to me, I thought it sounded like a Beastie Boys track, the way the singer was singing and flowing on it. He was right in the pocket.
Since early childhood, I've been trying to learn all I can. Science is everything; it's not just physics. It's the way of understanding your environment, the world around you.
I used to make demo tapes with cats that rocked with Russell Simmons and people like that. The history goes so far back; I've always been really focused on writing dope rhymes.
I'm on a Mission, that niggaz say is Impossible, But when I swing my swords they all choppable, I be the body dropper, the heartbeat stopper, Child educator, plus head amputator.
A lot of artists think that to be current, you have to follow what's out there and do something that's so unlike what you normally do. It can work, but it doesn't if you chase it.
Even if we didn't make records, we would have done it on the side for fun. Like, some painters sell their work; others just keep it - they love to do it whether they get paid or not.
I don't eat meat - chicken, fish, none of that. I eat a lot of vegetable sandwiches, like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, whatever I can put on bread with mayo and eat, y'know.
I don't knock material rappers, but let me hear it in a different way. How many songs do I have to hear about rims on a car? It's ridiculous. There's no substance. It's a hollow shell.
Emceeing has always been about making the most intellectual, most creative, wittiest rhyme as possible regardless of any subject. It was always about bringing the best out of yourself.
Energy is felt once the cards are dealt With the impact of roundhouse kicks from black belts that attack the microphone like cyclones or typhoons I represent from midnight to high noon.
Most people associate Wu Tang with Staten Island or Shaolin, but actually, I'm a native of Brooklyn. I was born in Crown Heights, raised in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brownsville, and Bushwick.
I've seen a dude who had the Wu logo tatted on his face. I mean, his whole face was tatted, but the Wu was the biggest thing on his face. That is a statement, something that means a lot to us.
I probably take about a month to write a song, depending on how much time I can dedicate to it, and it depends on how many hours a day there are and how many days in a week and weeks in a month.
If you hear people talking about the Golden Era of rap, they're usually talking about the early Wu Tang Clan era and then Nas and Biggie and so on. But for me, it goes back to the '80s - 1986 to 1989.
I just listen to a lot of stuff. Sometimes I play music; a lot of times, it will be stuff from back in the day. Sometimes I scan through the radio. Not the average stations that play the everyday thing.
I just have certain interests in different things, and they inspire me to write. I would encourage aspiring artists or MCs or rappers to be able to grab from many different sources to create your story.
When we did 'Back In The Game' on the Wu-Tang 'Iron Flag' album, I did a verse about gambling. I didn't want to be 'back in the game' or 'back on the block' - that's typical. I made it all metaphorical.
Our love of kung fu goes back to the Bruce Lee days in the 1970s. Outside the action, we loved the interesting, heartfelt stories and the dialogue. It was RZA's idea to draw all that in there as samples.
I'm not a sports person, but every now and then, I incorporate sports in my rhymes because I'm always grabbing from certain things and getting inspired by something whether I'm totally involved in it or not.
I don't like to just be simple. Even though some of my stuff can seem simple at times, I like to write in a way that, when you listen to it over and over again, you hear something new, and it requires you to think.
Like MCs, each chess player has his own style: how he likes to open, when he likes to attack. Just like we face off with each other lyrically, we challenge each other's minds on the chessboard. Sharpen each other's swords.
A song is composed of music and lyrics: 50 percent is the producer, 50 percent is the artist. So, I'm responsible for 50 percent. All I know is that I have to do my job, and I have to do it well. And he has to do the same.
There's no set way to do anything. Sometimes you have to go outside the box; sometimes you can do things the standard way. Like, you don't have to have a beat to write a song: sometimes you can write lyrics without the music.
I think all artists want that plaque, whether it's Gold or Platinum or multi-platinum. I think we all look forward to getting a plaque and hanging it on your wall and having something to show for the music that you've created.
Everything is always coming from something else. Even if you create something, it has to be inspired by something else. If you think of Apple and Steve Jobs, he had to be inspired by something that launched the ideas in his head.
Why is the sky blue? Why is the grass green? Why is metal a conductor of electricity, and wood is not, but you're more likely to be struck by lightning when standing under a tree? These are questions that require science to answer.
Snowboarding is skateboarding without the wheels, just on snow. It's the same thing, just that one is on hard ground with the wheels, the other is on snow. You just have to know how to maneuver your board and do things you want to do.
I had a few DJs in my neighbourhood that would play music in the streets. There was no hip-hop yet; there were just DJs that were playing disco, funk, and pop music, and we would gather round, go to the parks, and dance and enjoy ourselves.