I needed to dim down the world real quick. If I hadn't, I think I would have grieved too hard.
Remembering people through words and music
Rap quotes about grief and remembrance
These 17 non-lyrical excerpts from 13 artists concern losing people, remembering them and finding words for their absence. The card credits identify the person being remembered where the short excerpt leaves that unstated. These are individual accounts of bereavement, not instructions for how anyone should grieve.
Missing family, friends and collaborators
Queen Latifah recalls losing her brother. Big Boi describes an album shaped by family deaths; André 3000 speaks about repeated bereavements. Havoc misses the working routine he shared with Prodigy, while El-P describes records as a memorial to Camu Tao. Group artist pages retain the individual speaker in the interview credit.
Read beyond the excerpt
Follow the source link for the circumstances and the full answer. Some memories are tender, others raw or unresolved. Browse pain and loss for the broader theme, or rappers on mental health for a separate collection of personal reflections.
Queen Latifah
I questioned God. I needed to understand why would this happen.
Raekwon
OutKast
In recent years, my parents and my stepdad passed away, so it’s been a little bit of funeral fatigue.
It was a mourning-type of album for me, because I had lost my dad and my grandmothers.
Run the Jewels
If I flew a plane, I’d skywrite his name. But these records are where I put my heart and where I make my statement
It’s not sad, but it’s about missing and wanting.
More artists
It broke my heart, man. It actually did. It was just one of those feelings where it breaks your heart and you can't cry.
People told me it was ok to cry, that I didn't need to be a tough guy, but I was just prepared for it.
I’m just gonna sit back and reminisce, smoke something, drink something, think about the good times
But when someone close to you dies, everything turns on its head and suddenly you can’t accept that they just no longer exist.
I feel like there’s always something to learn from a death, and I learnt a few things from Richard.
I think it’s one of those things, I lost my brother and time is going to heal it and we’ll be all right.
Young people with grown-people problems, like grief. Your friends shouldn’t be dying. It’s a heavy thing for a young man or woman.
I went backstage and started crying, like, a lot because I realized, like, one of my brothers wasn't there.
I ain’t cried about it yet, I ain’t talked about it yet. I haven’t really processed it yet.