Rap Quotes About Identity & Being Yourself

I don’t represent the Democratic party or the Republican party. I represent the gangsta party.

My emancipation don't fit your equation

Not strong, only aggressive

Not free, we only licensed

Not compassionate, only polite

Fools swear they wise, wise men know they foolish

Being cool is when you win, you don't get too happy, and when you lose, you don't get too mad.

Heroes? Nah. Just common contributors hopin' that what we created inspires you to selflessly challenge and contribute.

Your postcode don't make you a gangster, you're not bad your area is

I don't look for trouble, I'm already trouble

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.

No, I wasn't born in Ghana, but Africa is my momma

We don't like to do too much explainin'

Story stayed the same, I never changed it

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.

Apart from jazz, hip-hop is the last true American art form.

Land of the free, but the skin I'm in identifies me

I ignore a whore like an email from LinkedIn (Huh)

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.

Back in the day they stole our smile

So we clothe our teeth in gold

It's fucked up when your mind's playin' tricks on ya

We came to this country

We were kings and queens, never porch monkeys

There was empires in Africa called Kush

Timbuktu, where every race came to get books

How you gonna win when you ain't right within? (Be men)

'Cause when we walk into heaven, nobody's name gon' exist

If you ain't 'bout your own people, what you gon' raise your fists for?

Everything that I am

You called me names till I became a name

Like hmm, my mum don't know your mum, stop telling man you're my cousin

It's hard being brick and mortar creatures

My thoughts have to fit in phones and through computer speakers

I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved who I’m not any day

Pray the real live forever, man

Pray the fakes get exposed

Next line will have 'em like "woah"

I've been kissing white boys since 2004

I'm gonna live by my confidence, I'm gonna die by my arrogance

I don't make Christian rap, but I am a Christian rapper.

I sold quarters, just so happens I'm the author of your favorite songs

My name is Short, my game is long

My sonogram was an image of a gun in the womb

That was soon to be doper than heroin in a spoon

You heard one song on Spotify and now you’re my biggest fan? No you’re not.

And even if I got deported, I own America

Others write your rhymes while I write my own

I don't create a character when I'm on the microphone

I am myself, no games to be played

No script to be written, no scene to be made

I'm not tryna come hard, I'm tryna come me

I feel like a working-class Jay-Z, baby

Happiness, the brand, is not happiness

We are smarter than they think we are

They take us all for idiots, but that's their problem

When we behave like idiots, it becomes our problem

The problem with always being a conformist is that when you try to change the system from within, it's not you who changes the system; it's the system that will eventually change you

I used to have a name that look like butterflies and Hennessey

I'd trade it up for happiness but joyful don't remember me

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.

I'm the opposite of moderate

Immaculately polished with the spirit of a hustler and the swagger of a college kid

Spend time in my sneaks or spend a night in my thoughts

You walk a mile in these, I walk a mile in yours

"If you bring forth what is within you

What you bring forth will save you

But if you do not bring forth what is within you

What you do not bring forth will destroy you"

I learned early that I had to work harder than the white kids and harder than the boys.

I am a Black girl who beat the statistics

Fuck the opinions and all the logistics, haha

I have been my own worst enemy since the very genesis of rebels

I spent way too much time tryna fit in

I always used to put my good days on paper

And kept my bad days secret. So here's some of my bad days as well

It’s the job of the philosopher to offer for discussion ideas that aren’t popular

My past is my shadow, it follows me everywhere I go.

I refugee from Guantanamo Bay

Dance around the border like I'm Cassius Clay (Yes, sir)

I often wish that I could save everyone, but I'm a dreamer

I wear my scars like the rings on a pimp

I live life like the captain of a sinking ship

The one thing that I can guarantee

I'm like a stepping razor, I suggest you stay fair with me

It’s funny. I embrace it. A clone is, like, perfection. So if I look like a machine or a robot, then I’m doing something well.

Don't be a hard rock when you really are a gem

I was Murda, P. Diddy made me pretty

First nigga with a Benz and a backpack

A mouth full of gold teeth, they think a nigga dumb

I got a head full of dreads, think a nigga illiterate

But I know when I go to talk, a nigga'll reconsider it