Rakim quotes

I learn to relax in my room and escape from New York

And return through the womb of the world as a thought

Thinkin' how hard it was to be born

Me bein' cream with no physical form

Like, I tried to rhyme so you couldn’t hear me take a breath.

With knowledge of self, there's nothing I can't solve

At 360 degrees I revolve

I take seven emcees put 'em in a line

And add seven more brothers who think they can rhyme

Well, it'll take seven more before I go for mine

Now that's twenty-one emcees ate up at the same time

Dangerous rhymes performed like surgery

Cuts so deep, you'll be bleedin' burgundy

I'm the R, the A to the K-I-M

If I wasn't, then why would I say I am?

I came in the door, I said it before

I never let the mic magnetize me no more

But it's biting me, fighting me, inviting me to rhyme

I can't hold it back, I'm looking for the line

Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music man. It’s like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.

I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke

Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke

When I'm gone no one gets on 'cause I won't let

Nobody press up and mess up the scene I set

I stick to my guns—that’s what keeps me going as an artist.

You could say I was feeding my ego and building a style at the same time.

I was an athlete in college—a quarterback, a leader—so people telling me what to do doesn’t work.

I stopped buying things for myself a long time ago—now I just buy things for my kids or my wife.

The scene of a crime every night at the show

The fiend of a rhyme on the mic that you know

Some of you've been trying to write rhymes for years

But weak ideas irritate my ears

Thinkin' of a master plan

'Cause ain't nothin' but sweat inside my hand

So I dig into my pocket, all my money spent

I create 'em, take 'em, shake 'em, then make 'em clap to this

Most of you rappers can't even rap to this

I want to be remembered as someone that had an idea… someone that did it his way… someone that loved music and pushed a genre