Rap Quotes

What I'm trying to do is break the genre from what is rap and what is music.

We grew up listening to alternative music from the '90s, and there was no shame in being on a major label and still making the music you wanted to make. I feel like rap rock came around and drew a line in the sand, and everybody that was like me ran away from that and started making indie-rock.

I was mostly surprised by the rap artists, actually, that were influenced by Sabbath. That was a surprise. But it's very nice and I'm very honored. It's nice to know after 27 years now that what I said in the first place has stuck, and that was the belief in it.

A lot of times black folks look for love in all the wrong places. You're always looking for somebody to love you, be accepted, and there's the insecurities that are even transmitted through rap. Everyone is trying to aim to please too much.

I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

It's just that when you heard hip-hop, no matter where you were, it was a culture that kind of made you want to try to be part of it. Whether you thought you were an artist, whether you thought you could be a DJ, whether you thought you could breakdance, or whether you thought you could rap. It was the kind of culture that had a lot of open doors.

I have considered rap music stars, and there is one in my new book, Lovers and Players, and there is also a hip-hop music mogul who I think you will like a lot.

Look at music: I've always loved hiphop and rap, and now there's this whole progressive movement, with De La Soul and Mos Def, Common. It's some of the best stuff around.

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

But, Eminem... No, I've loved rap for a long time, especially when it got out of its first period and became this gangsta rap, ya know this heavy rap thing? That's when I started to fall in love with it. I loved the lyrics. I loved the beat.

You have to come in on a professional level to make it, otherwise you just can't get into rap.

It's bad poetry executed by people that can't sing. That's my definition of Rap.

A lot of the stuff I've accumulated over the last few years of touring I thought was really interesting. Like sounds, sound bites, and beats even, but they weren't good dance beats they weren't ones anyone would want to rap over or anything.

If I could rap, that would be a sensation, but I can't, you see, I'm just a Caucasian.

Rap is a gimmick, but I'm for the hip-hop, the culture.

I don't have to say 'Rap it up' every two seconds, or 'Don't do drugs' every two seconds. They know they're not supposed to use drugs, and they know they're supposed to put a condom on.

A lot of the younger kids now can rap, but they're scared of the crowd. Mastery of that stage is an MC. I don't know if you've seen any great MCs on stage but when you do it's like wow, this is more than the words to rhymes.

In rap music, even though the element of poetry is very strong, so is the element of the drum, the implication of the dance. Without the beat, its commercial value would certainly be more tenuous.

If you stay in one place, you can only rap about one thing because that's all you know.

While also, importantly, not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of 'difficult' poetry are over, because we live in a pluralist culture and there's room for 'difficult' poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry won't be for everyone, but everyone should have the choice.

I think America has a bad rap right now... and hopefully Obama will change that.

Rap is poetry set to music. But to me it's like a jackhammer.

They that will not be counseled, cannot be helped. If you do not hear reason she will rap you on the knuckles.

I don't have to put out another rap record. I can do it at my casual pace.

I want to keep making records as long as I can, but I don't know how long you can be taken seriously in rap.

I always do my rap from the outside looking in. Like I do my rap as if I'm looking at me rap.

We're feminists. We're doing something that only guys are expected to do and doin' it right! At our concerts we'll do one hard-core rap song and then do one where we'll be real sexy.

Celebrity is ridiculous and silly and it's mad that people like me are listened to - you know, rap stars and movie stars.

There's no way I can compete with someone who can write rap or rock and roll. Nor do I wish to. But I've always kept up to date with music changes. I worked very hard not to type myself.

Times were changing. Clothes were changing. Morals were changing. We went from romantic loves songs like I used to do to rock 'n roll. Now that has changed to rap. So, there's always a new generation with new music.