Top 40 Dave East Quotes

I’m not feeling R. Kelly. And I got a daughter, so I’m super not jacking R. Kelly at all.

I always had a gift with writing. I can really write. I always felt like I can write movies or somehow get into that.

I want a son.

A lot of creativity coming from the east side of Harlem. It really built my character and who I am.

I am not going to lie – my looks helped me.

I’ll never put out some super-dumbed-down music. It’ll always have some substance to it.

Everybody knows I smoke, drink, and be up in the club, but I don’t want that to be my entire thing. I want them to see me get up and go to the gym after a night of clubbing.

Wu-Tang was going through it. They didn’t come from great homes or families. They really came from hard beginnings so it just made me reflect on my own situation. If Wu-Tang was able to make it, why can’t I?

Spanish Harlem is like every ghetto in America. There’s every distraction possible. To make it up out of there is really a task itself.

I always wanted to do something I knew I could love to wake up and do every day, and rap was just second nature to me, growing up in Harlem. I never really had to try.

I always tell people, I never get writer’s block because it’s coming straight from my brain, like, real-life experiences. I’m like the news. I’m just reporting it for myself.

I think R. Kelly is twisted, sick-minded, nasty, perverted – he different. I don’t know anybody like R. Kelly.

I want to be one of the greats. I feel like the money and all that is going to come, but I want to be a name that, like, when you say Nas or Jay Z, that’s forever.

I write all my own music, everything.

Deep down in my heart and what I’ve seen and what I’ve been around, there is nothing better than Islam.

Being self-made is a state of mind, and once you put that mentality to work, your success will come.

I’m still an athlete at heart, so I always want that comfort and something that feels like an athletic shoe.

I want to eventually get to a point where I can make all types of music for every type of crowd.

If you’re a fan of anything I do, I’m always telling a story. I’m into that – I like it when you don’t know if it was true or not.

No matter how dope you are, if you ain’t really built, if you ain’t put that groundwork in, you gonna flop. Nobody gonna fill those arenas.

Since the ’80s, Harlem has the place to go. Before the ’80s, just as far as hip-hop go, Harlem has always been a strong point, fashion-wise, music-wise, all of that.

I just value my family’s opinion as far as my music goes because that’s the ones that really know you.

I’m never really trying to focus on one aim.

My journey is self-made because I came from nothing. It’s the best feeling now, because I don’t really feel like I owe anybody.

I’m never gonna sell my soul or violate myself for no amount of dollars or fame.

You’re born a certain way, but you don’t gotta die like that.

My father brought a basketball to the hospital when I was born, and he already had it embedded in his head that I would be a ball player.

The fashion and the rap go hand in hand with New York City.

I watch movies all day. I am a heavy movie head.

When I’m out of town, I always try to get some readings or some type of new information to where I’m learning more about Islam, just to become the best Muslim I can become.

I feel like rap fit me better. I could hoop. I could have went and did that, but this is my lifestyle, my temperament, my mentality.

Islam has a negative outlook on it around the world based on what the media tries to show. They not showing the peace.

A lot of people change for good. Some people just fall off. Just trying to progress in anything, no matter what you’re doing, I feel like any progression you make… some people aren’t gonna be around you that were around you.

After the first three or four years of me taking rap seriously, it started to look more promising. I started booking shows and more people were playing my music, so I starting believing this could actually work for me.

The Netflix thing with Nas is more of a documentary, where we kind of… talk. We go to my neighborhood. You get to see where I’m from and all that. And then, I’m in the studio with Nas.

Growing up in Harlem, I was always in the parks playing ball.

I want to put out music that everyday people can relate to.

I was incarcerated for a little while in Baltimore, and my celly was Muslim. I was watching him pray every day, and his outlook on getting out of that situation was a lot more positive than the other dudes that were Muslim in the jail.

I stand out. I don’t really think I fit in with the ‘what rap is’ today. I feel like I stand out because I’m talking about me and my homies and stories from my life. I ain’t really trying to have you turnt up all day.

My standout moment I would have to say was when ‘Black Rose’ dropped and getting the co-sign from Nas and The LOX. I would say all those moments together were crazy for me.