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I'm at like 325 pairs right now, give or take. But I've given away about 200 pairs of sneakers. I'm not as big of a collector as I used to be, because I think the game just got weird. Everybody likes to collect now, so it's kind of corny. But I got the essentials.
When you live a certain way for so long, that's the only way people can see you. I don't necessarily mean that's who you is or you can't change, but it's a stigma that they put on you when you're from a place where I'm from. That's one way of looking at 'Trapped.'
My dream is to take the Indian independent music scene to an international level. People like Alisha Chinai, Baba Sehgal and Daler Mehndi took it to a very high level. My ultimate target is to win a Grammy. I don't want to primarily be a Bollywood playback singer.
Alternative spaces, independent media, satellite, these all provide some tools by which we can work more independently and deal more directly with communities we hope to reach. Distribution is key, and finding alternative ways to do that with new media is critical.
I've been writing a lot about just the aspects of luck and being picked, and how of course it's always how one perceives themselves in the world, as a bit of a scapegoat or a bit of a hero. Everyone generally has about a 60/40 split that volleys, between those two.
Your man Daddy Yankee, some black and white people who know what's going on in the 'hood and the clubs are supporting him and loving him. But he's speaking Spanish, and he's speaking directly to the Latino people, and the people who know the language really dig it.
You have to just do music, and you're becoming this entertainer, and so many people require so much of your time for different things, different obligations you have to make money, or just different obligations you have as a person in whatever the situation may be.
A lot of times when you keep it real with somebody, you can't expect them to keep it real with you. In this industry people just want to be famous and they forget how to keep it real and they forget to give credit to the people who helped them get to where they at.
The only advice I can give you… is to examine who you are… Figure out what’s important to you. Know yourselves. Know what’s in your heart. Don’t be swayed by fear or history or the opinions of outsiders. Find your own truth. It will lead you to the things you love.
Hip-hop in a lot of ways is like sports; when you go to a sports game, you see people from all ages, all ethnicities, all social classes, they're all there enjoying the game. Hip-hop has been one of the only forms of music that has provided that kind of atmosphere.
Nobody would deny that if someone was a billionaire in 1962, his billions are going to affect all of his descendants. The reverse is also true. The lack of education, material, and finances for a slave are going to affect the descendants of that individual as well.
I have yet to see someone attack Obama over his report card. A lot of people I talk to from both sides of the fence are like, 'Well, what about this economy? What about these incidents?' There are still no answers except time, but time is the answer for everything.
I'd always thought that if I could get sober and stay sober, I would be able to have a career making music. My drug and alcohol addiction was the one thing holding me back. I had finally gotten the tools to stay sober, and it was just a matter of writing the songs.
We used to talk about wanting to get some money, but that's when hip-hop was based on your dreams and your fantasy. The whole thing now is the dreams and fantasies were achieved, and you don't want to make it the focal point. You can't keep beating that dead horse.
In a nutshell though, it's just all about opening up to the people that really care about my career and really listening to everybody who is listening to me. It's just made me stronger, to really be able to open up that door and listen to everybody else's opinions.
I don't accept that the new generation is looking for anything different than what we've always been looking for. Depending on the moment, they want bangers that make them crack their neck, they want tracks that put them in a zone where they can sit back and chill.
Are you the person who just wakes up, puts your T-shirt on and runs out of the house? Or do you wake up an hour early - get your mental notes together, fix you a little coffee... prepare yourself for the day and try to do something really great? It begins with you.
Unfortunately hip-hop is so competitive that in order for fringe groups to get in, you gotta be better than whoever's the best. So before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible.
The materialism, the brashness, the misogyny - everything in hip-hop is amplified. Misogyny is a good example of something that is completely amplified in hip-hop. I do think there is more than enough of a balance, though, for fans who are willing to search it out.
There just needs to be a gay rapper. He doesn't have to be flamboyant, just a rapper who identifies as gay - who's better than everybody. Unfortunately hip-hop is so competitive that in order for fringe groups to get in, you gotta be better than whoever's the best.
I'm married to the street; I ain't gonna switch over. I ain't gonna go religion on nobody. I believe in God - God is for the thugs too - but the streets are in the most trouble. So I'mma keep it focused on the streets and the struggle. That's what I'm mainly about.
On 'Krit Wuz Here,' I had a record called 'Return Of 4eva' on it. And then that launched me into doing the actual 'Return Of 4eva' project, and 'Return Of 4eva' had a song called '4eva And A Day.' So it's like, all of my music has somehow tied into the entire story.
I feel like the only person who has a chance against Alejandro González Iñárritu is Lenny Abrahamson. [The Room] was very awkward, very odd, very uncomfortable as it should have been. And then it became very beautiful. It tugged all the emotional chords beautifully.
I've got an iPod but I don't even use it. It's just that, you know, you've got to like plug it up to the computer. And then you've got to download songs. And put them in your playlist. I'd rather just get the CD and pop it in. I'm cool with the Discman. The Walkman.
I'm envious of the way that electronic dance music has organised itself. It has been able to understand what it ain't rather than what it is. And I think that slipped away from hip-hop as soon as the DJs lost the majority of the say so in the direction of the music.
I was a door-to-door window salesmen in what feels like a cheap, creepy pedophile situation. And I can say that because we were a bunch of kids driving around in the back of some old guy's van and it was creepy. Now that I look back on it I get chills of creepiness.
I say as long as the individual stays creative and continues to come up with fresh new and exciting ideas, rap will be here. That's established. Simple. As far as what I want to do, I want to get busy, man. I want to rock 60,000 people. I want to rock the Superdome.
With 'Hip-Hop Saved My Life,' I attempted to make 'Kick, Push,' but for rappers. To give a real basic play-by-play of the life of a rapper before he makes it - if he ever makes it, because you can get stuck in that and be trying to make it for the rest of your life.
There are a lot of people who are successful and have a lot of money, but you can almost see their limitations because they have these walls around them. Harmony Korine exceeds those walls, and those are the types of people who go on to exceed people's expectations.
If I think of something, half-way into it, I can throw it in there and it won't be so far down the line that it would be insignificant. However, I also like to completely focus on something for a certain period of time, and then be able to move on to something else.
I heard a rumor I died, Murdered in cold blood dramatized, Pictures of me in my final state, You know mama cried, But that was fiction, Some coward got the story twisted, Like I no longer existed, Mysteriously missin', I'm known worldwide baby, I ain't hard to find.
I'm just trying different styles and switching it up, but getting back to rap and the essence and the swag that I brought to the game from records like "Rack City" and "Faded," records like that. I got some good collaborations that people are gonna be excited about.
To me, it's pretty much the same thing - I just love playing music. But the cool thing about DJing is that I get to play other people's music, I can mix it up between our songs and a variety of musical genres. It also enables me to be more intimate with the audience.
I would love to have a chat with Michael Jackson. For the sole purpose of seeing if he has a deep voice or not. A lot of people say he actually had a deep baritone, but then on TV he always had the high pitched squeaky voice. I would love to spend some time with him.
Usually when I make a record, I know what the potential is going to be, but I didn't know that 'Just A Friend' was going to be that big. 'Just A Friend' opened a world up where I never knew the difference between being a pop star and a regular rap star. It was crazy.
I'm looking into making toilet paper. It's not an option unless you a bum and gotta use newspaper. It's not an option. Like, it's an option if you wanna drive a car. It's an option if you wanna use a straw. It's an option if you wanna wear a pair of Nikes or Reeboks.
Let me keep it 100% real with you, when there was park jams nobody rapped at a park jam when I was rapping and that's a fact. You can ask anybody don't just take my word for it do your research cuz it seems everyone wants to make themselves bigger than what they are.
Yeah, I did see where the people dissing me were coming from. But, it's like, anything that happened in the past between black and white, I can't really speak on it, because I wasn't there. I don't feel like me being born the color I am makes me any less of a person.
I think the most important thing is to be yourself and be genuine and don't try to tell anybody else's story but your own. And if it comes from a genuine place, I think people can tell, and if it doesn't, I think people can tell, and I think that eventually it shows.
Just black executives have a bias against older artists. We don't respect our elders. That's not because of white people. That's because of black leadership. We just have that problem, and it's something that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to conquer.
I look at it like this: you may only sell 20,000 to 100,000 albums. But those albums are going to be heard by future doctors, lawyers, judges, firemen, etc. Those albums are being sold to the right people that move society. They're interested in what you have to say.
Rule No. 1 is you can't be fake. If you're fake, you become a gimmick and you're selling a gimmick; a little gimmick is cool, this is entertainment. But when you base your stuff on mostly real stuff, you never run out of it because every day is a different adventure.
Being honest, if I had a daughter I wouldn't want her listening to a Nicki Minaj CD until she was a certain age. Even when I meet my fans and they tell me they are 12, I cringe a little. I always say, 'Listen. I don't want you saying the bad words, put school first.'
Day in and day out we do the same thing, Tryina find the joy in our repetition. Always complainin' about the routine and the mundane. But let me stop to remind y'all bout one thing: Come hell or high water you can count on the sun Always shinin' in its untamed glory.
You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, 'Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. 'Yes, sir. No sir.' Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That's your job.'
Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks - you can tell what he raps about and what he's been through is very similar. You've got a lot of rappers that rap about what they've heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.
Part of the reason I am not there sooner, is that I was not allowed to go to the United States. Now I am allowed. I am so thankful I have been given a second chance and I live there and already more has happened in six months for my career then in the last ten years.
When I was about 14 I remember thinking when it came to proposing to my future girlfriend, I'd make a CD with all her favourite songs and a message that said, "Will you marry me?" Shows you what a romantic I was. No one listens to CDs any more. It's all about iTunes.
When I was about 14 I remember thinking when it came to proposing to my future girlfriend, I'd make a CD with all her favourite songs and a message that said, 'Will you marry me?' Shows you what a romantic I was. No one listens to CDs any more. It's all about iTunes.
My mother taught me three things, respect, knowledge-search for knowledge, it's an eternal journey. That's like my hair-cut, the line, 360 degrees, find knowledge always. And she taught me to not be quiet, if there's something on my mind speak it. But also to listen.