Top 25 Awkwafina Quotes

It’s not nice to say it – I know female musicians, but not so many rappers. I can’t think of one I idolize, which is sad, but I’m hoping that will change.

I studied my craft at the same place as Nicki Minaj.

When I was 15, I talked to Liam Neeson because I was the only one of my friends ballsy enough to engage him.

They’re not going to have a homeless person on a poster representing New York.

I legitimately wanted to know if Mayor Bloomberg was going to ban large margaritas that I cry over while on a date alone at Dallas BBQ as a part of his controversial soda ban.

I remember watching Margaret Cho with my grandmother on TV. She was my hero, not only because she was funny, but because she showed me that it’s okay to be yourself, that it’s okay to be a brash yellow girl and to be a strong and brave woman.

I think rap in general allows you to be more lyrically expressive. It’s a lot easier to state your identity, as opposed to with a guitar making all these weird metaphors.

More than anything, I’m an American kid, and my music reflects that more so than being an Asian-American. I think it’s important but also something that can detrimental to your career if celebrated too much.

I started by producing, and the rapping came second to that, because I wanted to fill out the beat.

I can’t tell if I want to be a rapper who’s funny because I kind of enjoy just doing really stupid songs about nothing. But I want to have a career that’s long-lasting, and I don’t think people want to listen to a straight-up comedy rapper all the time.

My every birthday wish was, ‘I want to someday be on TV.’

I like to make songs that are based on concepts.

If you don’t address race, then people are like, ‘Why don’t you talk about the elephant in the room?’ But you have to do it right. It can’t be gimmicky.

My grandma was very traditional, but she herself is a rebel of that culture.

I’m torn between wanting to connect with what I grew up with and what’s available, living in Brooklyn. I don’t have a grimy supermarket that decapitates frogs’ heads nearby.

I think that’s why I was able to do well in the beginning: because it was such a foreign thing. People frame it in a negative way, like, ‘For Asian-Americans there’s no one out there, so that must be really bad for you.’ No, I benefited from it.

Let’s take Taylor Swift. She lives in a huge beautiful apartment; she gets limo-ed everywhere. She’s not seeing what it means to live in New York.

I’m not trying to unite Asian people with my music.

I started with me as Awkwafina reciting ‘Othello’ monologues, and I’d send those to my friends. It started like that, and then it went into more music-y stuff.

I grew up two train stops from where A Tribe Called Quest grew up, and one stop from Nas.

I was working a corporate job, but I really wanted to do music.

You can’t really label me as a musician, a comedian, or a rapper – you know, it’s different.

Rap was started by black people and, thus, is at the foundation of black culture. So people cannot always wrap their minds around someone like me being inspired by it. But if you listen to the things we’re saying, they’re authentically us.

My grandmother can never really teach me anything because she skips steps.

I think people always want to hear that there are barriers that exist for us. But the more I started to realize artists that are kind of like me in my lane, like, if they were white or African-American, they often had trouble because it wasn’t the quality of their music: they just didn’t stick out.