El-P Famous Quotes
Reading El-P quotes, download and share images of famous quotes by El-P. Righ click to see or save pictures of El-P quotes that you can use as your wallpaper for free.
I do these records. All of these ideas that I have, that I put out there, that inspire me to write, are a purging in a lot of ways. I have to expel them in order for myself to walk around and actually smile and be a regular, or a living, person.
I don't have any delusions of grandeur. I just want to make music that doesn't make me bored.
I would feel pretty embarrassed if I was doing what I do and I wasn't at least attempting the eloquent translation of the human experience in some way.
My favorite era of hip-hop was between '85-'89. That was the era that got me to love hip-hop.
My whole mode is to do what I want to do and let people understand me through that.
Maybe my great struggle, and it's probably not anything different from too many other people, but it certainly is what drives the music, is a hugely internal one.
I'm not trying to change the face of hip-hop music. I'm trying to make my records and always take the next step for me.
I've never had a huge collection of records; I've never been a beat digga.
The fact of the matter is, if you're not putting out stuff that people are feeling, then your record label doesn't mean a goddamn thing.
We're fighting internal struggles, I am the cancer for my own cure.
Any issue and any problem, no matter what height you look at it from, no matter how much you extend past the first fractal, it's still a fractal of something that emanates from within your consciousness - from within the human consciousness. And it'll move on and manifest itself externally, and then those are what we pick up as societal ills. But all these battles we're fighting are internal. For me, it's reconciling hope with dread and trying to cut out some place in my mind where my heart can be protected a little bit.
My father was a musician, and I've always loved writing. I grew up in New York City during a time when hip hop music was surrounding you with the hip hop culture, and it felt natural. I was a really huge fan of the music.
Why should I be sober when God is so clearly dusted out his mind?
The emergence of the independent hip-hop scene has replaced what we called the "underground scene". It's what the underground scene has evolved into: actual businesses.
I always wanted to do a deal with Russell Simmons, and now I've got my signature on a piece of paper with his.
Oh my god what am I doing with my life?
I'm a pretty intense person. And I don't know if intense is fun. I put myself through the wringer. That's just how I work.
My problem is not to reinforce or destroy any ideas anyone might have about me, how I do what I do, what my intentions are, the way that I do it. My only job as far as I can see is to do the music that I want to do. All those other things are completely out of my control.
I think that everyone who does music, and everyone who does art, or everyone who decides at a young age that they're gonna do that, is someone who feels like an outsider. The world is not really set up for that.
At the core of everything I do, is not my ambition but my desire to make music. Somewhere along the line I stumbled onto something that was bigger, different than anything I had ever imagined, which was actually being involved with other people. I just don't live the average artist's life.
I'm not really one of these people who's been known for particularly hopeful sentiments.
There's nothing worse than being shackled by some miniscule sort of technology you have onstage, and I think your mettle is going to get tested in those moments.
The only thing an artist is useful for, and the only reason why we don't just line 'em up against the wall and shoot them, is because, at their best, they're the reflection of our lives, that most regular people can't even afford to think about.
I think that every record label has its trials and tribulations, its ups and downs. The only thing you can do is hope to recognize what it is that makes you great, and to try and continue to capture it.
Everyone just wants to feel good, and I don't think that all music is designed to make you feel good.
There are all the offsprings of people who are influenced by punk. It sounds completely different - but it's still rock 'n' roll. When hip-hop came on the scene, it was the last legitimate creation of a new genre.
Most people aren't happy about being consistent and staying at the same place for years. People want forward progress and motion.
I'm trying to consciously evolve myself. I have no delusions of grandeur.
There's a responsibility as a musician to do the music that you want to hear.
I can't sit in the same place. I gotta keep going.
When we're putting out records that people are responding to, it's amazing. And it's obviously what we shoot for every time. It's a tricky balancing act. But as long as it's sort of a righteous idea, then you're good to go.
I'm a fan of some of the hyphy stuff. Hyphy has been going on a lot longer than the press has been recognizing it.
The worst part is that if you become part of a major - all these independent labels become farm teams for your corporate parent. Basically, you do all the work for years, blowing up an artist - you discover them, blow them up, you build their fan base. And then that artist is like, "Okay, now I'm here. Now I want more. I want to be bigger." And you're either going to be able to accommodate them, you're going to be able to figure out how to take that step with them, or you're going to lose them.
I've been approached by major labels every single year of my existence as an artist. Since 1996.
I think that people have been claiming hip-hop as being dead since the moment it started. I think there are people - and I can be included in that category sometimes - that get frustrated feeling like maybe the industry has handcuffed itself, or trained its artists to do or think about music in a way that classically hasn't led to the greatest records in hip-hop.