The right to bear arms is because it's the last form of defense against tyranny.
I've always been a person that, if I'm with a woman, she's in the picture. Even my son's mom, she was on my early (album) covers.
I didn't really realize how big I was 'til I started to tour, because being in your own neighborhood, people don't actually give you full props.
When I first got into the rap game, I had an early dream of unifying rappers.
I don't feel that rap has been respected as an art form. Because people have seen rappers rap off the top of their heads, they don't think it is difficult.
Everything we do helps the new artists in the long run.
I started writing rhymes first and then put it to the music. I figured out I could lock it to the beat better if I heard the music first. I like to get a lot of tracks, put the track up and let the music talk to me about what it's about.
I'm at a point where I don't have to wait for the income from the record to survive, so I'm in a comfortable zone, but I'll make rap records as long as I feel I have something to rap about.
If it sells, it sells. If it doesn't sell, I'll go make a movie.
As long as I'm around the cats in the hip hop scene, they'll throw me a track and I'll write a rap over it.
Anybody who speeds thinks they can outsmart the cops.
I've never been a cop hater. You know, when I was breaking the law, the cops were the opponent. I just thought I could outsmart them.
Being in the military just lets you know how helpless you are. You could train forever but you're still at the mercy of someone in the Pentagon, or somebody in the rear moving you around like a chess piece.
I think that a rap aficionado, the hardcore rap fan, will always go away from pop, in the same way a hardcore jazz fan will never think Kenny G is really a jazz artist. You gotta kind of know there's always going to be that purist who's going to be like if it ain't beats and rhymes, if there ain't a DJ, then that ain't Hip Hop.
I just don't believe that there's any way that you're ever gonna get one peace, because everybody has different ways of seeing life.
When I make records I have full control of everything and I know how it sounds before it comes out, with films it's outta my hands.
If I'm going to be a jazz player, I need to understand Miles Davis.
Yeah, it's legal in the United States. It's part of our Constitution. You know, the right to bear arms is because that's the last form of defense against tyranny. Not to hunt. It's to protect yourself from the police.
What's bad for the culture is wack rappers that get held in high regard like they're some great thing because it's the flavor of the month, but everybody knows they can't rap. I don't think it's hard, even for somebody who's not hip-hop, to know that that's not good. When you put them up against somebody that can really rhyme, you go, "Okay, I get it. This is what it should sound like."
Hollywood has its own way of telling stories. I was just telling stories that I was familiar with. And it's what I want to do in the future: I want to take my audio cinema and put it on the screen.
Jay-Z is like a rap-savant, he doesn't have to write the rhymes down, he can create complex raps in his head. I mean he does memorize it, he just doesn't write it down on paper. He doesn't freestyle onto the track, it's all thought out.
The music led to the acting. But movies aren't something you can just will yourself into. Someone has to choose you, and you have to be quite fortunate to be chosen.
You can't come out on a record dissing the system and be on a label that's connected to the system.
I'm a big fan of all styles, even Biggie and Wu-Tang, but I gotta do my thing.
You have to come in on a professional level to make it, otherwise you just can't get into rap.
