- [on why he holds a dove in each hand on the back cover of his 2002 album "God's Son"] We deal with money, cars, smog, pollution, and drugs. But being in the sky, they can fly and look at the world without dealing with our bullshit. Matter of fact, they shit on us. I really admire them.
- I want to have fun. It's a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.
- The flaws, the mistakes I make - that's the real me.
- Once you make it to your point of making it, you'll appreciate the struggle.
- Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.
- Hip-hop is the streets. Hip-hop is a couple of elements that it comes from back in the days... that feel of music with urgency that speaks to you. It speaks to your livelihood and it's not compromised. It's blunt. It's raw, straight off the street - from the beat to the voice to the words.
- We're all Africans, everyone - black, white, yellow.
- You can't please everybody. You'd be crazy if you're trying to. So take some time out to do some things for yourself.
- I don't want any title. I just say what I say, and hopefully somebody gets it, man. I'm not perfect, and I'm just here and trying to make a dollar, and being real at the same time, you know?
- I wish the music business was a much easier thing, but you know what? Nothing easy is worth anything. So it is what it is. There comes a time when things can work out and everybody can be happy. And that's what it's all about in the end - everybody being happy and working it out.
- I just enjoy life now. I just enjoy every morning I get to wake up.
- I don't have time for the news clippings. I got my own mission.
- Divorce can be crazy. Man, if you're happy... Love is a beast, man. Hold on. Be prepared for any way it may go, and be honest.
- I have no tattoos that I regret - I have had some that I have had changed according to how my life was.
- I don't get jealousy, I don't get how people hate each other - I never did.
- Some people say I'm conscious, some say I'm a gangsta rapper - it's just me doing me. I'm stomping in my own lane. I'm doing what I do.
- When you're a teenager, you want to meet a lot of girls - you want to get the most girls. You don't know anything about respect; you don't know anything about being faithful and loyal to your girlfriend.
- I can't control what people think. They know who I am.
- Every generation witnesses atrocities. People in power try to fulfill prophecy.
- My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.
- Anybody can be a rapper, but not anybody can be a classical artist.
- I definitely have plans to do more collaboration albums in the future. I'm a big fan of Common. I'm a big fan of Scarface; I'm a big fan of so many people, from Jeezy to... well, there are a lot of people's music that I respect. I don't know who I will collaborate with, but there's a great chance of something happening.
- Whenever I received too much praise, it just didn't feel right to me - ever.
- Marley is someone before his time, man. He's - he's almost - he's like a deity, like almost, you know what I mean? I just talk about what's going on, but of course, you know, Bob, before rappers, was already laying that kind of thing down.
- No one's promised anything. You could have the biggest record on radio and sell no records.
- I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We're warriors. Soldiers.
- No matter who you are, black, white, green, there's going to be things in your way, you know what I mean?
- I love PBS! I grew up on it. If I had to say which channels were good, I'd say, you got your PBS, your History Channel, your Discovery.
- With age comes common sense and wisdom.
- All fatherhood is very important because single mothers shouldn't have to raise sons or daughters; they need that help.
- When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I've seen out there, you know, the things that's out there that ain't good for her. It's a crazy world we live in.
- Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun. My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what's me.
- I don't go out unless I'm working. My quality time is when I'm doing nothing.
- I think if I heard someone else talking about their life, describing all the problems I've had, they'd look like they were through. Done. But there's something about me - I'm smiling. Those things are really not bad enough to put me in a slump. I'm smiling with the opportunity to wake up every morning.
- Calling Michelle 'Obama Barack's baby mama?' Tell me, is that acceptable? But the Obamas aren't the only targets. Fox's pattern of race-baiting and fear-mongering regularly focuses on black leaders, black institutions and ordinary black people.
- DJs play a big responsibility of what hip-hop is doing... At the end of the day, it's up to us to control and to own hip-hop. DJs need to challenge us rappers. They got so much power, they need to challenge us.
- N.Y. hip-hop is ok, but we gotta become brave again; we have to be brave enough and do something new - that's what New York is about... New.
- Your look reflects what's happening in your mind. You gotta have some swag to you.
- GaGa is one of my favourites. Her voice is incredible and she's fearless and she's ahead of the game. She's ahead of the entire game, and I admire that.
- I'll always love rap, no matter what's going on.
- Hip-hop is bigger than the South; hip-hop is bigger than New York.
- I talk about life, and I make universal music with an American style - and that's what I do.
- Anybody I'm dating, I don't want them to talk about my music. I don't talk about my music to them.
- I think the fact that I made enough noise in the world that I might be remembered is an amazing achievement. You can't ask for more than that.
- I had a pretty public divorce. They're not easy - divorces - and it took me a long time to really get through.
- I've been called everything. Gangsta rap. I've been called conscious rap. You know, everything. Whoever feels like calling it whatever they want to call it, that's on them.
- Africa has been going through so much for so many years; it's time that it stands up the way other nations are standing up.
- Let's not forget, art can sell. You ain't gotta front all the time on your records.
- Hip-hop is really standoffish. It's really competitive and it's really about who's number one all the time. Sometimes it gets out of hand.
- I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it.
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