What I really love about the Bay area sound is that it’s very unique and that’s something I want to strive for, as an artist. It’s easy to get caught up in what’s trending, but Bay area rap stays true to the local sound.
I was reading a lot of European history, and I thought Attila the Hun had gotten a bad rap.
Even though ‘Turn Down For What’ is considered an EDM song, it’s really a rap song.
Speaking out against rap music is useless, and it’s futile. The reality is there’s criticism for everything, but Jay-Z is one of the most remarkable artists of our time of any genre, and as a hip-hop artist he carries the weight of that art form with such splendor and grace and genius.
Everyone has a little niche in rap, and I just wanted to carve a piece out of it for myself.
In the past it seemed like I was making fun of rap a little bit. But it was more me making fun of myself, since I’m not technically a rapper, whatever that means.
I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.
I really only make my own beats when I feel like I can’t wait on somebody, or it’s taking too long to get a nice beat to rap on.
When Elton John sang a duet with the white rapper Eminem on a Grammy telecast, rap went mainstream. Massive parental headaches followed.
As a rapper, I was heavily influenced by American rap albums. But for songs that are more melody-driven, I get my inspiration from Korean albums.
I love rap music.
Rap makes the conservative argument about what happens when family life is eroded either by welfare and drugs, or by the stresses and indulgences of middle-class life.
I would say that I’m more moved by melody, even though I love to rap.
Everybody in the ’80s, well, we hate rap. Now, the biggest rapper in the world… Eminem. Rap’s a black thing.
Rap is hardcore street music but there are women out there who can hang with the best male rappers. What holds us back is that girls tend to rap in these high, squeaky voices. It’s irritating. You’ve gotta rap from the diaphragm.
They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.
There’s this thing about authenticity when you rap, right? Whether or not it’s real, it has to feel real.
I follow politics in a big way, and always have since I was a kid. I’ve got opinions, but they’re opinions on both sides – not just anti-Republican, which is a real popular thing for a rap artist to do. If you dis Republicans, nobody will get mad. I think the two-party system sucks. It’s absolutely ignorant.
I started listening to rap music in 2012 or something, because that was when I started becoming friends with American people, and they showed me rappers to listen to. I actually started listening to Macklemore a lot. He’s the first rapper I started listening to.
When people say to me ‘what do you think of rap music?’ my answer is there’s no such thing. There’s rap and there’s music.
Writing rap songs is about flow, about one word blending seamlessly into the next and creating a thing that is possible to perform in a way that feels natural.
I started DJing, breakdancing and MCing in the ’70s and I got my record deal in 1979 with ‘Christmas Rap.’
What’s more American than young people speaking their mind over things they had to create over pots and pans and electronically because music was taken out of schools? What’s more American than making something out of nothing? What’s more gospel than rap music?
I’ve never been a rap guy, I don’t really know that much about rap music, to be honest. I like it, but I think what really happened was just my music seems to work so well with rap music.
Los Angeles gets a very bad rap, the perception, especially by us Brits, is ‘Oh, it’s so fake,’ but it’s the antithesis!
I hope people listen to the music. Don’t write it off because there is a Christian doing it and it’s been labeled that way, because if I’m honest with you, Christian rap for the most part has been corny.
I don’t rap like nobody, I don’t try to sound like nobody.
I have such an eclectic taste in music. Come to a backyard BBQ at my house, and I will run the gamut from Skynyrd to Sinatra to ’90s grunge, rap, R&B, and classic rock. I have issues. If I had to pick one, I love this country artist named Craig Morgan. His music and his songs are so relatable and tell such vivid stories.
I remember hearing Will Smith, back when he was just a rapper, saying, ‘When all the other rap stars are in bed, I’m practicing my rapping.’ I try to be like that. There is always something to improve.
I feel like every time I make a beat, and the Migos rap on it, it’s gonna be fire.
Gibberish rap is – I freestyle all the time, just hangin’ out with friends. And sometimes when I’m freestyling, I’ll lose my flow, you know, but I’ll still wanna – I don’t wanna just stop rapping because I lose my flow. So I’ll just put in nonsense words till I can bring in regular words again.
I don’t accept ‘political rapper’ because I don’t give a damn about either political party. I give a damn about the people. My rap comes from a sociological standpoint rather than picking a particular side or dogma or ideology. I just want people to be free to do what they want, as long as they don’t harm others.
When I began to rap, I wasn’t taking it real serious. As I start seeing good things, it’s getting serious.
I grew up on listening to, like, Mantronix and BDP and EPMD and Kool G Rap and Ultramag and Public Enemy and Fat Boys and Run DMC and a lot of those early records, those Rubin-era records. Those were always snare- and stab-heavy records.
Rap was my drug.
It’s funny because as a rapper, there is – and this is something that Clipping challenges all the time – there is this idea about authenticity as a rapper, in the fact that you rap things that are yours. That’s not what doing a play is. You’re interpreting somebody else’s words.
Models will always get a bad rap about weight, but I love to eat.
It wasn’t really me who invented rap. I stole the idea from Aristide Bruant.
When I heard my first rap song and figured out what that was, I kind’ve stuck to it. I always wanted to be a musician in general, an entertainer. I just started rapping. I never decided, ‘Oh, I want to be a rapper.’
I live in New Jersey now, which always gets a bad rap here and there, but I must say, I enjoy living here too.
I love a lot of music that’s considered folk music, but I also love a lot of music that’s considered punk or considered rap. I don’t mind being called a folk singer. But it seems a bit limiting. I want to be able to write whatever kind of song I want.
Prince, Bootsy Collins, Earth Wind & Fire and Parliament all had albums that sound different. I wanted to show, as a hip-hop producer, I’m one of those that can do anything, because I was raised on so much music aside from rap and hip-hop.
But with rap music – not just N.W.A. – but rap music in general, seeing these artists wearing these team logos all the time started bringing a synergy and energy about having to rep your city, your team, everywhere and all the time.
I haven’t done rap… I can’t do that too well.
I like to speak to my family in person. I get a bad rap because I don’t use my phone enough to talk to them, but I do love talking in person, and I don’t mind FaceTime, but actually, like, calling and texting, not too big on that.
Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.
I was lucky enough to see the original cast of ‘In the Heights.’ This one blew my mind. The infusion of Latin, hip hop and rap with musical theatre, great storytelling and talent was a powerful combination to me during a time when I’d not been moved by much!
There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.
I don’t like putting a name on my music. It’s not just country and rap; it’s got Southern rock, classic rock.
I do think musical-theater actors can get a bad rap, and I see why. There is a certain slickness – there’s nothing better than an amazing musical, but an okay musical can be one of the worst times you’ve ever had.
I just like heavy music in general – from heavy rock and heavy metal and heavy rap and heavy everything. I’ve always been attracted to it.
No one raps about food like I do. I rap about fine dishes – like, all kinds of things that only real chefs and real foodies are going to know about.
I grew up listening to a lot of rap music. My dad’s a DJ from Brooklyn, and he’s a very soulful guy, so he always spun a lot of hip-hop, and that’s where I get a lot of my hip-hop influence.
Growing up, flute riffs was big in rap back then. It’s what I listened to.
You can still make music that people love, but there won’t be more innovation. I started listening to electronic music a long time ago. But mostly I listen to rap. I think rap is the most interesting.
I didn’t realize how much harm I was doing back then and I think a lot of rap artists probably don’t realize it now. I said a lot of stuff fooling around back then, and I saw it do a lot of harm.
Rap is really just too conventional. Everybody does the same thing. No one ever pushes the box.
I thought that God and rap would never work. I thought that God wasn’t okay with rap. People knew I used to rap, and I went to the Bible studies. Someone said, ‘Hey, you should rap about Jesus.’
