When you go to college you can just be whoever you wanna be. So I got there and I’m like, Yeah, I’ma rapper.
I never wanted to be a rapper. I want to be in the movies. I want to own buildings.
I would never design anything. I just think that’s kind of wack. I hated every rapper fashion line that ever came out, you know what I’m saying? I would never try.
A lot of people are comfortable labelling you because it’s easy. Like, ‘He’s a rapper. He can only do this. He can only do these types of shows.’ I want to do everything. I want to feel comfortable being me.
No city owns me, you know what I’m saying? I’m from New York, but no city owns me. Nobody can bottle up my sound and box me in. Yes, I am a rapper, but am I a New York rapper? No. I am from New York, I love New York to death, but I will not conform myself to one place, no.
I wouldn’t consider myself a mumble rapper, because I don’t know what that is. But when I talk, I mumble. So it’s in my music because that’s how I talk.
I like Chance The Rapper a lot.
I never imagined myself being a rapper.
‘Chance the Rapper’ is many things. I’m constantly evolving.
When I was at Upright Citizens Brigade, I would pretend to be a sad, drunk rapper.
I think it’s a tough transition. It’s easy to go from comedian to rapper, but to go from rapper to comedian is tougher.
I entertain more than just sayin’, ‘oh that’s a female rapper,’ or ‘oh, that’s a rapper,’ period.’ But, me, I put out music, and when I put it out, I also entertain on Twitter. I entertain on stage. I entertain talking to people.
If we met today and you had no idea who I was, you’d just think I was a normal guy. You wouldn’t think I’m a rapper.
I used to really love Fiend, but he stopped. He just stopped. Every time he had a project, every project – ‘There’s One In Every Family,’ ‘Street Life’ – I had to have them. And he just stopped. And that was disappointing, ’cause that was my favorite rapper at one time.
Drake is my favorite rapper.
I always envisioned myself being a rapper and being in the game and having success, but you never know what it feels like or how you’re going to be when you’re there.
Key! is the greatest rapper alive. I honestly, truly believe that no one is as effortless, weird, and creative, and themselves as he has been for years and years.
Chance The Rapper makes some of the greatest music out, and he build his brand up organically, and the fans have reacted to it.
I tried to be a rapper. I tried to make beats before I got into comedy, and that’s still one of my hobbies.
I never pictured myself as just a rapper; I always wanted to act and do whatever else I could do. I always felt like I could do a lot of different things.
You know, I wasn’t a rapper, never wanted to be a rapper. That wasn’t my style.
I never really was like, ‘Let’s me and this rapper link so the song can go crazy and everybody can listen to it.’ I never made music for that purpose.
I actually fell in love with hip-hop before I fell in love with Jesus. I’m a fan of hip-hop, I love hip-hop. I don’t even necessarily want to call myself ‘Christian rapper.’ You know, I don’t want to put myself in that little box.
There is always the underground rapper people enjoy, and you want to see him come up. That’s kind of how it is in wrestling.
Once upon a time Americans didn’t want to listen to Canadian rap and now Drake’s the biggest rapper in the world.
By now, you should know what you’re getting with Pusha T. I’ve been in this game since 2002, and my name says it all. You know I’m only moved by a certain style of rap. Not that many other styles move me. You have to really be a rapper’s rapper for me to like it.
I’m a California guy, but in my opinion I think Biggie is the best rapper.
I feel like when people are talking about how they make music or how they are the biggest rapper, I don’t understand how that’s relatable to people.
If someone announces me as a ‘Christian rapper,’ there’s still an ‘Eh, no thanks.’ But perceptions are starting to change.
Ask any rapper or singer what artist they are an expert on. What artist are they looking to emulate, and really, what artist is the one person they are an expert on? You see, if you want any kind of longevity, if you want any kind of legacy, you need to know what ancestral line you are from.
I’m a veteran at this point; I ain’t no up-and-coming rapper. Up-and-coming been happened.
Nobody can deliver a line better than Jadakiss. That’s where I learned my technique. He can deliver punchlines so perfectly wrapped up for you to enjoy. If I had a different favorite rapper, I wouldn’t be able to make some of the music I do.
Anybody wherever I’ve ever been in my life, one thing they can always say good or bad, I was always doing music and I always wanted to be a rapper.
You can be a rapper born and raised in go-go music, violence, drugs, crack, Reagonomics, and still, if you hear ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,’ you’re going to find a way to hum along. Guilty pleasures? It don’t matter. Sue me – I like the song. To dance to it is another matter.
I always say a rapper is like a halfback in the NFL. You got about seven years, then it’s a wrap.
I play a girl called Patti in the film ‘Patti Cake$,’ and she’s a girl from New Jersey, and she dreams of being a famous rapper.
Before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible.
I don’t want to be a small-time, independent, successful rapper.
I grew up in the ’90s. My goal isn’t to be a ’90s rapper, but I have little hints of ’90s influence in my music. It’s a modern approach to classic rap.
I try to get the hip-hop aesthetic, most times without an MC. I don’t use a rapper or a DJ to give it the hip-hop style; it’s strictly the band that makes that music, which is a lot harder to do.
It took me a long time to stumble upon a sound, and I figured out I wanted to kinda sing rapper’s lyrics.
I wrote a song that basically turned into a public service announcement for the fellas out there, like, ‘Should you run into this type of woman, run for your life!’ So the name of the song is ‘Run,’ featuring the rapper ScHoolboy Q. It’s one of the standouts on the album, in my personal opinion.
Financially, people always assume you’re good when you’re a rapper.
As an artist, as a brand, as a rapper, as a musician, you know you got a window and a lot of people, even an athlete; they don’t have no exit strategy. It’s just living in the false reality that it’s going to be like this forever.
I was a rapper and a DJ, and if you wanted to be involved in hip-hop, you had to be involved in the sonic, the kinetic and the visual aspects. The visual was graffiti.
A couple of years ago, leaving a restaurant near the Louvre, I held the door for a black man in a camel overcoat. Only as he passed did I realize it was the rapper Kanye West.
There was this rapper from New Orleans, Mystikal, who when I hear his music, I hear myself. Whenever I wanna get hyped, I put on Mystikal.
I don’t think any rapper can go back. You can be a car salesman, a bank teller – I mean, really good jobs, and people are still gonna look at you and be like, ‘You used to rap; what happened?’
Coming up as a female rapper – well, a female artist in general – everything is just so black and white.
Honestly, the biggest setback to my music career was people’s perception that I was a reality TV star, not a rapper.
Gonjasufi may sound at first like a rambling hip-hop crackpot, but there’s more to the California rapper and singer than mere eccentricity: What appears messy and thrown together is anything but.
Mariah Carey, Rihanna, the female rapper Nicki Minaj, my kids – and what do they all have in common? They’re all lighter skinned. Do you think that’s an accident?
When it’s a rapper’s album or a singer’s album, there’s a tendency to want a text-based or theme-based narrative.
I’m a singer who thinks like a rapper.
I’m the type of rapper – like, I’m never gonna let myself get washed up. I’m never gonna be in one area too much. That’s why I never wanna move to Cali. Everybody’s out in Cali.
I’ve never been competing with rappers about who’s the best rapper. I’ve been making songs that people like.
In my head I’m a rapper, but I’m not!
My goal is to be the most ignorant, richest rapper I could be.
The fact that I got to do the ‘Hamilton’ BET Cypher is a totally crazy thing because I’ve watched the BET Cyphers since it started. I’ve seen every one. I study them. Because I’m a rapper. It’s what you do.
I’ve never seen Kendrick Lamar crack a joke, and I’ve met him, but I’m sure he’s hilarious, too, just because he’s so good at rapping. J. Cole is a funny guy as well. Drake is funny. But who’s the funniest guy I’ve met who is a rapper? I would say 50 Cent.
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.
I feel bad for kids growing up that, like, their favorite rapper is Lil Yachty.
I never really planned on being a rapper, I just kinda did it and then people started liking it.
I want to do more to create more awareness so that the people in our communities aren’t just thinking that you just got to be a basketball player or a rapper, because that’s what I thought.
