Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
I started digging into parts of myself that I probably ignore and don't really get to express because Common is an artist that is conscious and is aware and is trying to put a positive energy to the world.
I think that everybody has their own interpretations of what it means to be American. But from my vantage point, being black and successful in the Unites States of America is the epitome of being American.
...I've never had a dream in my life, Because a dream is what you wanna do, but still haven't pursued. I knew what I wanted, and did it till it was done. So I've been the dream I wanted to be since Day One.
I might be more satisfied seeing my friends really come up than myself. I'm really happy for my success, but I can't really see it, because I'm myself working. You can see it; everyone around me can see it.
When I was younger I didn't want to listen to anybody, but now more than ever where I am in my life I understand how important it is to listen, observe, absorb, and let that all come out through your music.
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 have a few theories and trains of thought that I wouldn't expose because they are not anyone's business. I hold them sacred, it's how I feel, it's my opinion, not up for debate, and not meant to be shared.
Atlanta is unique to me. You got poor black people, but I also saw this: I saw black doctors, lawyers, educators. All you gotta do is want to be it to see it, and once you see something, it can be a reality.
Those 'Pledge' records did good for me, and they're the foundation that this Killer Mike is built on, but I was judging myself on physical sales and didn't understand that music sales were declining overall.
The passion for sneakers has been there since day one, but I never held onto them. I never shrunkwrap them. It's always been about getting it, buying it, wearing it, showing it and moving on to the next one.
For some reason, we have completely separated Christians who are rappers, and we have separated, I guess, regular rappers. I feel that we should be able to mingle, enjoy each other's company, and trade ideas.
This is a new phase in my life. I just want people to give the show ["This Is Mike Stud"] and myself a real chance. I'm pretty self aware and know what people are going to think this show is going to be like.
I'm not saying I'm going to be deviating from what I've been establishing as far as being aware, but I feel odd about consistently being... I mean, I don't know if I'm... I'm just leery about a lot of things.
For a guy who didn't expect a fan base whatsoever, I'm pretty stoked. People say they don't understand it, and I say that's okay. I don't think anyone can argue that I'm not trying to do my own thing at least.
The L.A. rap scene is popping again because rappers stopped saying 'West Coast.' Nobody says that anymore. Fans of L.A. music were reaching and saying, 'This is West Coast music,' because nobody else liked it.
I've lived in New York City all my life. I love New York City; I've never moved from New York City. Have I ever thought about moving out of New York? Yeah, sure. I need about $10 million to do it right, though.
Nas is truly one of the greatest lyricists to ever come out of Queens, which has produced more great MCs than any other borough. He's one of the greatest MCs of my lifetime and in the world. He's also a friend.
I just feel like I explain myself more, I'm trying to be more conscious about it, simply. Just enlightening my fans and letting them know to lock into me because I'm speaking real with them, more than anything.
Musicians are all about celebrity first and foremost, and I just can't do it. The second any sort of popularity contest comes into the picture, I have to walk in the other direction. These people are sociopaths.
What I remember the most really was just running wild there. Barefooted, swimming in dirty lakes, selling fruit, picking mango trees, hoping not to get caught because they don't take kindly to thieves in Africa.
I would just like to see hip-hop journalism in general take a step up and match the artistry. There have been great writers in music who are the caliber of artist as a writer as the people that they're covering.
I think that everyone who does music, and everyone who does art, or everyone who decides at a young age that they're gonna do that, is someone who feels like an outsider. The world is not really set up for that.
The only person that seen something in me was Punch, and probably Ab-Soul. Ab-Soul and Punch was the two niggas that was like "Yeah, Q gon be one of them niggas. Watch." I don't know how they knew but they knew.
The advancement of style is the cornerstone of hip hop. There is no correct or conservative way to make rap music. Rap is and must remain the answer, the alternative, to the conservative approach of making music.
I'm not one of those artists who doubts that they made dope-ass records. From the first record to now, each record has gotten better. I started dope, so I've just gotten doper and doper and dopest and super dope.
I don't want people to see what I've been doing at Play Cloths for nine years and built from a streetwear independence standpoint through Japanese streetwear - I don't want that to be shifted into something else.
I remember listening to Sugar Free and Jay Z and I never really understood some of the stuff they used to say until years later. Then you hear it again like, Damn that's crazy. I just got what he's talking about.
I'm sort of like Jean-Paul Goude, the graphic designer who used to style Grace Jones and shoot all her visuals, just meaning that I use all mediums in one - music, fashion, and art. I'm hitting it from all angles.
I wish I didn't get searched when I come through customs. I wish Christians stop beefin' with Muslims, Wish the poor didn't have to take welfare, Wish America had universal health care... Cause ain't no help here.
There are all the offsprings of people who are influenced by punk. It sounds completely different - but it's still rock 'n' roll. When hip-hop came on the scene, it was the last legitimate creation of a new genre.
Chicago, I feel, is a microcosm for the segregated, violent environment that is America. I try to not only speak about these things in music, but also try to address these things in real life tangibly with action.
Sometimes you come from your community, and then you rise. It's like, okay, when do you get back rooted into your community? A lot of times you can rise in the ranks and maybe leave the core of where you come from.
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.
My first songs were energetic because I liked their energy. When I used to battle people every day, I had to go hard. If someone went harder than me, they left with the win. I haven't lost since I was 12 years old.
The Re-Up Gang mixtapes are going down in history, man. I still listen to them in my car, and the 'Hell Hath No Fury' album. I tell people all the time that I'll never make another album like that one again. Never!
I like the story about Bon Iver. They said he kept his GRAMMY in, like, the basement bathroom so he could just focus on getting another one. If I won a GRAMMY, I'd probably keep it at my mom's house on 47th Street.
'Darkest Before Dawn,' the short film, is basically the film of a man who faces the darkness when his back is against the wall and just about how miracles come in all forms, and even in your darkest times, it comes.
My music is airy; it's spacious. It requires you to be able to rap and articulate your message over it. That's what the beat demands of you. Not a lot of people try to rap over my beats because it's a bit of a task.
People that I care about, that I consider being friends of mine, most of the things I discuss with them I wouldn't discuss in public because it's a real relationship. It's not a relationship for the public, you know?
For me, growing up in hip-hop culture, it's all about having the next style, the new fashion, the new way to express yourself, the fly new beat. I can't sit still; I have no nostalgia. I don't have to have nostalgia.
I focus on fashion of course, I love it. I may go buy an outfit and get dressed just to sit on the couch and watch TV at the crib so on the outside looking in people cold better word it. It's really me just being me.
When I'm not in the booth, I'm one of the most laid-back guys. But growing up, I liked DMX, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, and T.I. - dudes that went all out on the track. My first songs were energetic because I liked their energy.
People don't understand how long it really takes to find beats. Sometimes they're not all the way there, but it's elements in them I love. Then I get to take them to get chopped up. Ye got to cook over a few of them.
My vision for G.O.O.D. Music is just carrying on with the tradition of putting out high-quality music, high-quality art. G.O.O.D. Music is entrenched in the culture of hip-hop. It's entrenched in the culture, period.
I don't really speak for anybody else's music, and I don't think I should, but I think the reason why people enjoy my music is because there's a level of honesty and transparency that people can connect and relate to.
My parents split up when I was five, and that changed my life as well. I wasn't used to seeing them away from each other. I had to get used to seeing my dad without my mom. Those things affected the music that I make.
We have essentially gone from being communities that were policed by people from the communities to being communities that are policed by strangers, and that's no longer a community: that's an area that's under siege.
The intensity at a G Herbo show is crazy with fans especially in New York. It's always crazy and at home (Chicago) of course. The intensity is always crazy depending on the energy that I give, they feed off my energy.
No one wants to hear me over some smooth, regular beat, or just into the times. I try to do records sometimes that have a different bounce - maybe it's a Southern bounce or something. And people shoot me all day long.
The last Company Flow reunion show in New York City was pretty insane. Everybody knew all the words to every song; everybody had smiles on their faces. Those shows are what you hope for every time you get on the stage.