Rakim is a great rapper, but, you know, he’s not a battle rapper.
I’m not a grime act, I’m not a rapper, nor am I melody man. I just make music.
Curren$y used to be my favorite rapper.
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 love Kanye for that. Being a producer, making beats, and being a rapper. He does it all.
One of my favorite rappers of all time, if not my favorite rapper of all time, is Nas.
A good rapper is an amazing thing to me. It’s like a 17th-, 18th-century poet.
The American dream is Chance the Rapper, or ‘little Chano from 79th’ who hails from Chicago’s Southside and became the first artist to win a Grammy without selling one physical copy of his album.
Gucci is a rapper that doesn’t try and be anything he’s not – he’s straight up. Yeah, maybe it’s ironic and all, but I’m just a fan and have been one since day one. Gucci Mane is the cool uncle I never had, even though I’m sure I’m probably older than him.
It’s a difference between a good rapper and ‘king of the city,’ they’re two different things. You can be a better rapper than me, that don’t mean you’re king of the city.
In hip hop, ‘real’ has always meant one who represents in actuality what they present in imagery. For instance, once upon a time, if a rapper spoke about being gangsta, they needed to truly be that, or they were ‘frontin.’
Yes, I love Chicago in many ways, but I’m definitely not trying to fit, you know, the drill Chicago rapper.
I think the guy who has had the better films is Will Smith. I don’t know if he’s a better actor than me. I don’t think so. I am a rapper first. Man, I just love what I do. I am just the greatest and I can’t help it. I’m sorry man.
Nas was a huge influence. That’s probably my favorite rapper of all time.
I don’t profess to be a political rapper, like groups such as ‘Dead Prez’ or ‘Public Enemy’, but I think social commentary should make its way into your music. Speaking on your neighbourhood is social commentary – what happens, what’s going on.
I used to be focused on being the dopest rapper in the game, and then once that became what I was, I wanted something different, and I wanted to become the best businessman in the game. I wanted to learn how to master the business like I mastered the rap.
I’m not the best rapper; I’m not trying to be the best rapper.
I’m not a Soundcloud rapper anymore.
I’m the first rapper ever popping his collar.
When Nicki was putting out mixtapes, she was the only female rapper that had any kind of buzz. And not to mention that she was on the track with the guys, you know? So you had the girls playing it, and you had the hood guys playing it, too, so you couldn’t run away from Nicki.
I’m not just gonna get a random rapper tattooed on me.
I started in ’07, and I remember, at that point, nobody was trying to hear from me because I was a young rapper. I’d be saying stuff better than some of what the hottest rappers were saying back then, but nobody was trying to hear from me.
I want my money to be different. I’m not trying to have rapper money. My goal is to be able to get everything from the world that I can get.
The rap scene is so unique. Every rapper has to bring their own thing.
I’ve probably wanted to be a rapper since I was a teenager. I was an actor and comedian and stuff, but I always wanted to rap, it was another outlet.
I remember the first time I saw the ‘Sugarhill Gang’ on Soul Train. I was 11 or 12. I was like, ‘What’s going on? How did those guys get on national TV?’ And then, when I was a little older, a rapper from the neighborhood got a record deal. I was shocked.
I guess I did go through my phase where I wanted to be a rapper. I made music, but I was never really good at it.
I’m not obsessed with the idea of doing what you’re supposed to be doing when you’re a rapper. Walking around with cash that you haven’t even provisioned for tax. Spending all of your time in the designer store to create some weird impression. I’m not interested, bro. I just like making music, and that’s it.
Everybody in the ’80s, well, we hate rap. Now, the biggest rapper in the world… Eminem. Rap’s a black thing.
Drake and Kanye, y’all gotta move out of the way. I’m younger than y’all. I look better than y’all. I got more swag than y’all. And it just is what it is. I’m here to take it. I’m the new best rapper.
I’m proud of everything I do, but I think I’m the most happy about becoming a rapper. It was my entrance into everything. That helped me get into acting.
Think that I started taking emceeing very serious probably from the very beginning. Because I started as a battle rapper. It was something that I was doing hoping that I could hang with my older cousin.
I don’t consider myself just a rapper or just a singer. I’m a music producer, lyricist. I’m a poet as well, and acting is also a part of big entertainment.
Gucci was my favorite rapper, is my favorite rapper, was always.
I’m not a good rapper. For whatever reason, my brain does not work that way. I just do the beginning, like, ‘Yeah, yeah! Ha ha! Woo! What up? Come on! Get at me!’ I’m Captain Hook.
Whether you’re a DJ, whether you a rapper, whether you a producer, take it seriously. This is an occupation – you can get paid – don’t expect to blow up overnight, and appreciate when you do get paid any type of money, appreciate it.
It’s either you finna create your own wave, you finna sound like me or you finna sound like G Herbo, you finna sound like Chance The Rapper, you finna sound like Juice Wrld. You ain’t gonna get too far ’cause you sound like somebody. So, create your own lane and do your own style.
I put everyone in my school on to Nicki Minaj before she blew up. I was obsessed with her and I was like, ‘If she’s the best female rapper then I’ve got to be better than her.’
No rapper in the world from Jay-Z to Tupac to Biggie has 100 percent love on everything they do.
I’m a rapper trying to be an actor.
There’s no other rapper that will drop a better album than me. No one.
I hoop – I play basketball. I’m challenging any rapper.
My mom was a rapper and she really shaped me as a woman, and the music that she was letting me listen to as a child really pushed me in the direction that I’m going in right now.
I think most people don’t know that I really write everything myself. No help. There’s nobody in the studio except for me and the engineer. A lot of people don’t think I’m a singer. They think I’m a rapper.
I’m kind of like a rapper trapped in a singer’s body.
I never really focus on writing for other people, to be honest. Every song I’ve ever written was for me to sing. Maybe if I’m writing for a rapper, but I’d still write it as though it was for myself and then sometimes I’m actually asked to do the part.
My favorite rapper of all time is Jadakiss – hands down, no question.
When I first started, I thought I was wack. Lyrically, I thought I was wack. The thing I had over everybody was that I was the realest rapper.
I’m more of a fashion designer than I am a rapper.
Because I first made my name as a rapper claiming South Central L.A., people often assume I’m strictly a West Coast cat. But my family was actually from back East. I was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in Summit, an upscale town in north Jersey.
Benzino has a long, credible history as a rapper and as a producer.
When Elton John sang a duet with the white rapper Eminem on a Grammy telecast, rap went mainstream. Massive parental headaches followed.
The one thing about this Trump fiasco that never set well with me was the fact that everyone loved him until he ran for president. Every rapper, entertainer and actor was chasing a Trump check, then everyone changed on him almost overnight and I thought that was weird so I kept my eyes open.
I had always been a fan of Nas, but I never met him. This is the one guy in the industry who’s, like, the phantom rapper.
I’m not really a rapper!
Chance The Rapper is a person who really knows what he wants.
The first splurge that I did, I bought, like, an $80,000 watch, but that’s because I’m a rapper. I need jewelry.
I don’t think of myself as just a rapper. But overspending on sneakers? That’s a real rapper thing to do.
My dream job growing up was always to be an artist. It wasn’t even that I would be a rapper or singer; I just knew I would be a public figure.
I almost turned down ‘8 Mile.’ I was due to start ‘ER,’ and I learned they really wanted me to be in ‘8 Mile.’ I didn’t know Eminem; I just knew he was a rapper and saw what everyone else saw in the media. I thought they were just trying to capitalize on his popularity.
I care most about what rappers think about me as a rapper, and I’ve gotten a lot of praise. I think rappers understand I’m a really good rapper, and that means more to me than a random person, you know, ’cause they know what goes into making rap music.
My dad used to be a rapper, he had a rap group. They did proper old school, boom-bap music. He had a high top and everything.
I actually spoke to one of the heads of a studio, and he said I confuse middle America. Basically, when they see a black person, they see athlete, they see rapper, or they see criminal or something like that. And then when they hear a British accent, they hear posh, so they hear lawyer or doctor.
