Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My first official music video for "Who Am I." It's getting crazy traffic and a lot of hype. I got sponsored by a company called MATIX because of it.
We're all different and I respect my difference. I just try to be myself at all times. As long as I do that my music is always going to be different.
When I do solo material I definitely tend to overthink it. I make a lot of rules for myself that are a little bit arbitrary and... it's just painful.
I'm never really comfortable; I think it's kind of natural to feel uncomfortable, and I think if people say they are comfortable, they're just lying.
As far as I'm concerned, the reformation of marijuana laws is something that I take seriously. I think it's something that can stimulate the economy.
I love Michigan, to be honest. I don't think I'd live nowhere else. It's cheap! This is Detroit. A little bit of nothing gets you a lot of something.
In terms of fashion, I think the biggest influence that I had was my father. My pops, he was really into men's fashion and read all of the magazines.
I don't really wear foreign shoes. It gotta be a pair of wheat timbs and ones I don't think I could go without those not a whole month without those.
Set your business plan to win; raise the bar or you're not going to be prepared. You need to think that what you're doing will make you $100 million.
I am ready to serve the people of Afghanistan, particularly in order to restore peace. I will be ready to assume any duty at the service of my people.
I'm my biggest problem; I'm the thing that stops me most from doing what I need to do to be successful or to achieve success in whatever area of life.
Hip-hop has always been about keeping it authentic and being authentically you. That is what I try to do in my music and when I speak about the Bible.
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.
I was just rapping as a pastime and I became good at it. So much so that by the time my Def Jam contract was in front of me, I didn't have a rap name.
The motivation to me is to make money and not be dependent upon the shallow pool called the entertainment world or the rap world or the hip-hop world.
First black president ever, and to be living while it happened - that's a good part of history. That's probably the biggest person I admire right now.
I didn't have musical upbringing. I never listened to music growing up, thinking "I want to make my own music". I just listened to music for pleasure.
I'm always gonna rap. Rapping's what I started doing, I even sang when I first started rapping, when I couldn't really sing at all but I always tried.
Usually when fans find out about my music for the first time, they're like "Oh this guy's actually for real!" And it's just like yea, you found Waldo.
Feeling is always first for me in anything. I think the only way for sure that I know how do that is to write songs about things I feel strongly about.
In the rural South, 'Bubba' is like how people say 'dude' in California. It's a name for a regular Southern man. I know a Chinese Bubba, a black Bubba.
I would feel pretty embarrassed if I was doing what I do and I wasn't at least attempting the eloquent translation of the human experience in some way.
One of my dreams is to expand and make sure African music and Afro Beats music is really on the map. I would like to be a contribution to that success.
God really exists, I tell you like this: It resides inside. And anybody tell you different, Just selling you religion, Tryin' to keep your ass in line.
I don't trust the church or the government, and anything the church or the government tells me I assume to be a lie or a conspiracy, until proven true.
Our feelings can be hurt, but you can take a yoga class, you can pray, you can play some basketball - you can figure out things for your hurt feelings.
I cannot lie: as good as it feels to get my deserved props, the best part of reading social media after I meet folks is reading, 'Mike was a nice guy.'
Some athletes are super fashionable and not good. It's like c'mon man focus on your craft, be who you're supposed to be and then go put on the clothes.
I watch people all day long on Instagram, I take part in it too. It's like if you get the piece first, you have to immediately be like "BAH!" stunting.
I'm still alive to change the world and to do things that are significant. I don't know what they all may be, but I was put on this earth for a reason.
We're not able to hide behind myths of this being a post-racial society because Donald Trump has outlined exactly how a large portion of America feels.
I've been watching battle rap since that time period when Cassidy was hot, Murda Mook and Lux first when at it. That was a very pivotal time in hip-hop.
I just write notes all day on my phone, and when I write songs it becomes a patchwork of these smaller notes that I had, mixed with stuff in the moment.
I found Beam when he was 16 years old. He dropped his SoundCloud page onto my Facebook. 'I listened to it and was like, these tracks are actually dope.'
I think there are more religious overtones in music because these artists want to be connected to greatness. What is greater or higher than God himself?
To have my name said like, "Common and John Legend, Golden Globe nominees," is one of the greatest achievements I've ever had as an artist, as a person.
My New York, the one I identify with as a kid, has greatly changed. And I'm sure the people who were adults when I was a kid probably felt the same way.
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.
If I'm trading bars with somebody, it certainly is not because I have a release coming. Joe Budden prides himself on the music and not the sales aspect.
I'm really into vintage clothes. So I've been... vintage shopping and kind of adding and reconstructing things and just doing a little bit of designing.
Thinking about the artists I've loved through the years, my favorites are the ones who've made music with cultural, societal and political significance.
I think the thing that makes Indiana basketball special is that they have incredible teams, both college teams and pro teams, and they're all about grit.
I love black thighs, you sisters better realize That real hair and real eyes get real guys. So before you makeup your face, you better make up your mind.
I felt like I had experienced a lot of things in the first chapter of my life, and I wanted it to inspire and motivate people, so I just started writing.
I'll be getting all types of crazy fans, from the hoodest dude to the straight-up dude in a business suit. It's dope. I have a crazy wide-range fan base.
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.
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.
Will I die slain like my King by a terrorist? Will my woman be Coretta, take my name and cherish it? Or will she Jackie O., drop the Kennedy, remarry it?
See me looking like Atlas, when he handle the globe. I see you looking like Alice, Wonderland is your home. It makes me wonder if you practice your flow.
I started off as a graffiti artist in the South Bronx. My tag name was 'Loco' because I would go crazy and tag anywhere I wanted, in the weirdest places.