The way that was mixed, the fucking hiss—that song feels like when depression hugs you.
Collection
Rappers in their own words
Most lists of rapper quotes give a name and nothing else. These 50 come from 34 artists, and each links to the interview or article it was found in, where the wording was checked verbatim (punctuation aside). They are spoken lines, not lyrics: what rappers said about the craft, life and who they are. Ice-T, Cardi B and Kanye West have the most entries here, with no more than four per artist, and every quote is rated 3.5 or higher. Cards marked Source were found in a roundup by a music publication rather than the original interview.
On rap and hip hop
You could put a lot of Auto-Tune on it and it’ll still be a sucky song.
Apart from jazz, hip-hop is the last true American art form.
Music never felt like a job. Now it’s just like people waiting to see if I fail.
I don't make music to make people feel comfortable or reaffirm all the things that they already thought
If you listen to a whole album and never had to question one of your beliefs or your opinions about the world, or yourself, then you weren't really listening
They don’t make statues of the critics. Judgment and critique are not more important than art.
Music is a mirror of what we’re going through, not the cause of what we’re going through.
Don’t underthink me, and don’t overthink me. Don’t underestimate me, and don’t overestimate me. Just do you.
I take what I do very seriously, but it’s a lighthearted seriousness.
I didn’t feel connected to hip-hop growing up. I never wanted a chain or a mansion. I just wanted niggas to stop dying.
On wisdom
Being cool is when you win, you don't get too happy, and when you lose, you don't get too mad.
You keep using the same recipe, You’re gonna keep baking the same cake.
The only people who are afraid of facts are those who don’t have a leg to stand on.
So if you’re my friend, you could never compete with me, cuz I’m not competing with you.
at the end of the game, the pawn and king go in the same box.
I think one of my biggest assets is not knowing how famous I am.
Identity is a prison you can never escape, but the way to redeem your past is not to run from it, but to try to understand it, and use it as a foundation to grow.
When you know the law, you’re above the law. When you break the law, you’re under the law.
Fear is stronger than love, remember that.
when you get success and you get fame and money, it makes you be you times ten.
it is your duty not to burn your own house down for anger with an enemy. It is your duty to fortify your own house, so that you may be a house of refuge in times of organization.
On identity
I don’t represent the Democratic party or the Republican party. I represent the gangsta party.
If I grew up in some suburb, I’d come out with a song about potholes-in-my-lawn. I had a sidewalk, and on it niggas sold dope and crack.
You wear a clock to know what time it is. And when you know what time it is, that means you are aware. And we are very aware, so we wear bigger clocks than many.
I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved who I’m not any day
I don't make Christian rap, but I am a Christian rapper.
You heard one song on Spotify and now you’re my biggest fan? No you’re not.
I feel like a working-class Jay-Z, baby
I learned early that I had to work harder than the white kids and harder than the boys.
More lines
When you’re not fed with a silver spoon you learn to lick it off a knife.
It's easy to make people think you’re a gangster. It’s hard to convince the feds you’re not.
You wanna know what scares people? Success. When you don’t make moves and you don’t climb up the ladder, everybody loves you because you’re not competition.
How are you going to call it a comeback when I've been here for years, man?
I've always hated authority from an early age. And authority has always hated me.
the chains and pajamas and champagne can’t be the endgame — not for us. Reckless capitalism kills black people.
George Bush doesn’t care about black people
I don’t want to close any of the doors needed to create the best product possible. But my ego is my drug.
Hero worship can be an excuse for not taking care of your own sh#t.
I may not understand every aspect of everyone’s culture. But I do understand the distinction between oppressor and oppressed. And I choose to side with the oppressed.
Being a feminist is being equal to do what a man do. Niggas hustle, and I hustle niggas.
We all knew Michael Jackson, we all knew Amy Winehouse, because they told us everything in their music. To be the artist that I want to be, I’ve got to be vulnerable.
I ain’t on nobody else timetable.
Sometimes I don’t feel like I’m the prettiest, sometimes I don’t feel like I’m on top, and when I hear ‘Bodak Yellow’ again, I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m that bitch!’
If you’re the artist who wrote the protest song, you’re hoping it won’t make sense in five years. But it does.
I’ve reached a point in my life where my Truman Show boat has hit the painting.
The only two things that scare me are God and the IRS.
Why would I get mad at you for saying you the baddest? Why can’t we both agree that we bad, and that just be that?
It wasn't until I left that I realized it's not weird to grow up in certain cities and, by the age of 27 or 28, for all of your friends to still be alive.
My Uzi is my mind, the bullets are the words I speak.
With social media, I was off it for so long that I thought I had beat this addiction, I had beat this thing, and then I got back on it and realized 'Nah, you just took a break,'