Gangsta Rap Quotes

In a way, all recorded music is reduced to the same level, no matter what it is. You find it in the store, you put it on and, "Oh, that's not cool. That's gangsta rap. That's white supremacist punk." But in a way, the content is removed from the intention of the people that made it. That's the commercial level of music. ~ Eyvind Kang

If the KKK was smart enough, they would've created gangsta rap because it's such a caricature of black culture and black masculinity. ~ Jackson Katz

Now I've got the world swingin' from my nuts
And damn it feels good to be a gangsta! ~ Willie D

I can't say enough good things about my band. I feel very fortunate that I found them when I did, very early in my career. Not only are they just great, nice guys; they're some of the best musicians you're likely to find. They do everything from gangsta rap to polka music and every genre in between. It's amazing. ~ Al Yankovic

What is MTV doing and what is the hegemonic culture industry promoting in gangsta rap? It is the glorification of violence for the sake of violence, the violence itself, like consumption for the sake of consumption, hypermasculinity writ-large with an adapted potency. ~ Bocafloja

Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street based, street oriented ... I'm from Gary, Indiana, and everybody's damn near at the poverty level. ~ Freddie Gibbs

I believe a lot in gangsta rap, I see in it a lot of positive things as it is. I believe it is only about doing politicization work. Revolutionary change will come from there, it won't come from conscious rap. ~ Bocafloja

Gangsta Rap is dead. I've moved on. And the raps that I'm rappin to my community shouldn't be filled with rage? They shouldn't be filled with same attrocities that they gave me? The media they don't talk about it, so in my raps I have to talk about it, and it seems foreign because there's no one else talking about it. ~ Tupac Shakur

Part of my affinity with urban music comes from being on 'Kids Incorporated,' 'cos we used to sit around and listen to Chaka Khan and Prince, and I got influenced by all that. Then gangsta rap got started, and I was infatuated with that - maybe that's why I'm fascinated by guns. ~ Fergie

Concurrently, the growing class power and public voice of conservative and liberal well-to-do black folks easily obscures the class cruelty these individuals enact both in the way they talk about underprivileged blacks and the way they represent them. The existence of that class cruelty and its fascist dimensions have been somewhat highlighted by the efforts of privileged-class blacks to censor the voices of black youth, particularly gangsta rappers who are opposing bourgeois class values by extolling the values of street culture and street vernacular. Significantly, the attack on urban underclass black youth culture and its gangster dimensions (glamorization of crime, etc.) is usually presented via a critique of sexism. Since most privileged-class blacks have shown no interest in advancing feminist politics, the only organized effort to end sexism and sexist oppression, this attack on sexism seems merely gratuitous, a smoke screen that deflects away from the fact that what really disturbs bourgeois folks is the support of rebellion, unruly behavior, and disrespect for their class values. In reality, they and their white counterparts fear the power these young folks have to change the minds and life choices of youth from privileged classes. If only underclass black folks were listening to gangsta rap, there would be no public effort to silence and censor this music. The fear is that it will generate class rebellion. ~ Bell Hooks

To me, the 90's signaled the end of glam rock, the beginning of gangsta rap, and hopefully the beginning and end of boy bands. ~ Shane West

I've always been noted for being original and doing different thing. So for me to hop on the train that's going on would be - shoot, if I wanted to hop on the train, I might as well have hopped on gangsta rap back when it was popular and tried to do that. ~ Will Ferrell

There are rap groups that have a positive outlook in their art. These groups should be shown as an alternative to gangsta rap. ~ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

We have to remember that the experience of gangsta rap as such in its foundation is an anti-systemic experience primarily. And it is an anti-systemic experience that is not in some cases politicized, but in general results in a much more transgressive, much more uncomfortable music for the structures of power, than conscious rap or political rap. ~ Bocafloja

The only thing intimidating about Cube is that he's the father of gangsta' rap. You just worry about getting your lines right, or he might shoot you. ~ Terry Crews

Gangsta rap was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other. Gangsta rap didnt exist. ~ Alicia Keys

I live by the beat like you live check to check.
If you don't move your feet then I don't eat,
So we like neck to neck. ~ Andre Benjamin

I wish I didn't get searched when I come through customs.
I wish Christians stop beefin' with Muslims,
Wish the poor didn't have to take welfare,
Wish America had universal health care ...
Cause ain't no help here. ~ Ed O.G.

Any rap record from 1989 to 1999, besides [ones on] Death Row, we did promotions for it. We had our hand in everything. ~ Steve Rifkind

A day to God is a thousand years,
Men walk around with a thousand fears.
The true joy of love brings a thousand tears,
In the world of desire, there's a thousand snares. ~ RZA

We runnin around in thousand-dollar clown suits,
Better get some boots when Lucifer turn your city to Beirut. ~ Ras Kass

I used to do more melodic stuff, and I used to do more actual rap - like traditional hip hop vocals. I think my method of storytelling has led me to this point, at which I want to pare down my style. I think I give the lyrics more thought, and then when I try to perform the lyrics over the track I'll try it over and over again, and eventually the lyrics will sink into the track by the way I project them. ~ Galcher Lustwerk

I'm blacked than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle ~ Mos Def

The long-simmering anger at racism and economic injustice of alienated black youth in the ghettoes was erupting into violent and destructive urban insurrections. In every case these "riots" were triggered by police brutality or misconduct, most usually the killing or brutalizing of an unarmed black man. ~ H. Rap Brown

A sharp rap at her window startled her even further, and her blood rushed in a charge from her head to her feet. She blinked and blinked again, but the tall figure at the window didn't appear to be going anywhere.
"It's really wet out here, y'know," came a muffled voice from the other side of the glass. "Are you going to ignore me for much longer? ~ Frankie Rose

While also, importantly, not wanting to dumb it down or pretend the days of 'difficult' poetry are over, because we live in a pluralist culture and there's room for 'difficult' poetry alongside rap and everything else. And poetry won't be for everyone, but everyone should have the choice. ~ Andrew Motion

Some seek fame cause they need validation,
Some say hating is confused admiration. ~ Nas

There are poor white people who hear rap music and feel it is about them, because it is. That's why you have an Eminem and a Bubba Sparxxx and rappers like that. ~ Russell Simmons

A creative writing teacher at San Jose State used to say about clichés: 'Avoid them like the plague.' Then he'd laugh at his own joke. The class laughed along with him, but I always thought clichés got a bum rap. Because, often, they're dead-on. But the aptness of the clichéd saying is overshadowed by the nature of the saying as a cliché. ~ Khaled Hosseini

It just happens to be that people like to associate poetry and rap music. I think that idea is kind of corny. ~ Earl Sweatshirt

I was lucky enough to see the original cast of 'In the Heights.' This one blew my mind. The infusion of Latin, hip hop and rap with musical theatre, great storytelling and talent was a powerful combination to me during a time when I'd not been moved by much! ~ Josh Young

Lil B opened up the floodgates for Odd Future, and now rap has a huge Internet culture. ~ Earl Sweatshirt

I describe me sound as international: reggae, pop, rap, R&B all in one. I think I have my own style. I can't really even describe it. People say, "What type of genre is your music?" It's Sean Kingston genre. I have my own genre. No disrespect to no artist or dudes out there. I feel like I am my own person. I am doing my own thing. ~ Sean Kingston

No question I would speed for cracks and weed
The combination made my eyes bleed. ~ Raekwon

I think that hip-hop is more of an individual effort. That means you're an artist from the streets, they expect you to rap about the streets, because that's what happens there. ~ Conor Oberst

Excuse us for the news,
You might not be amused;
But did you know White comes from Black?
No need to be confused. ~ Chuck D

Yo Premier, why these rappers so soft?
They corny ass raps be makin me doze off. ~ KRS-One

She live in a mindset that I could never move to ~ Drake

I think that all journalists, specifically print journalists, have a responsibility to educate the public. When you handle a culture's intellectual property, like journalists do, you have a responsibility not to tear it down, but to raise it up. The depiction of rap and of hip-hop culture in the media, I think, is one that needs more of a responsible approach from journalists. ~ KRS-One

Watching Dawson's creek 'til I fall asleep. It's harder than it seems. ~ Mac Miller

A digital sound sample in angry rap doesn't correspond to the graffiti but the wall. ~ Jaron Lanier

I would love to be friends with Kendrick Lamar because I am just a huge fan of his music, I think he is so cool and he uses so many interesting sounds and has such good melodies and is just a beautiful rapper, his raps are just so well-written and his tracks are so insane, I am obsessed with him. ~ Alana Haim

Satisfaction, I have the right tactics ...
And if you need em I got crazy prophylactics. ~ Q-Tip

And - holy shit was this song bad. It was like the singer was stabbing my ear with a dagger made of dried turds. ~ David Wong

When I get up I still check the rap blogs before I check any kind of dance stuff. ~ A-Trak

If you love someone, you should say it often,
You never know when they'll be layin' in a coffin.
Wake up, it's important that you know that
No one on Earth is promised tomorrow. ~ MC Lyte

Young kids out here see what's on TV and feel like they can start rapping. They think rappers are rich and really have their own jets and Bentleys, but in lot of cases that stuff is rented. ~ Rahki

Comin' from the school of hard knocks,
Some perpetrate ... they drink Clorox.
Attack the black, cause I know they lack exact
The cold facts, and still they try to Xerox. ~ Chuck D

She was superfly,
Curtis may have feeled her ass ~ GZA

It's the beauty in her, But when the makeup occur, I don't see it, All i see is a blur ~ Kendrick Lamar

There were copies on the table. Ten-A-Fly dressed like Snoop Dogg on a bender making gangsta hand signs that made one think not so much of intimidation as an unusual state of palsy. ~ Harlan Coben

I get physical, mystical, very artistical ...
Giving party people something funky to listen to. ~ Big Daddy Kane

This rap game is just WWF; everybody wants points off somebody else. ~ Young Jeezy

Before I was not in the television cameras every 5 minutes, I wasn't as visible, but this year I plan on being more visible to ensure that Virgin Rap Division does not lose. Although I am a very low key person, I am competitive, and with every ounce of my spirit, I will ensure that this label is taken seriously. ~ Jermaine Dupri

When Ke$ha tries to rap like L'Trimm, she sounds like any ordinary lonely teenage girl stuck in a nowhere town, singing along to her radio and dreaming of a party where she's the star. Ke$ha's greatness is that in her voice, you can hear both the loser girl and the star. All hail the Queen of Noi$e! ~ Rob Sheffield

I call you once ... you never dialed back.
Twice ... you never dialed back.
Saturday morning, live, I'm on Soul Train, talkin' to Don Cornelius.

Saturday night, my phone rings ...
Saturday night, I won't answer.
Saturday night, my phone rings again ...
Saturday night, I don't answer. ~ Kool Keith

You don't judge a book by a cover. I'm not your typical rap look. ~ Action Bronson

The mind tricks the body,
Body thinks the mind is crazy ... ~ Buckshot

That's why we sing for these kids who don't have a thing, except for a dream and a fuckin rap magazine; Who post pin-up pictures on they walls all day long, idolize they favorite rappers and know all they songs; Or for anyone who's ever been through shit in they lives, so they sit and they cry, at night, wishin they'd die; Til they throw on a rap record and they sit and they vibe; We're nothin to you, but we're the fuckin shit in they eyes; That's why we seize the moment; Try to freeze it and own it, squeeze it and hold it, cause we consider these minutes golden; And maybe they'll admit it when we're gone; Just let our spirits live on, through our lyrics that you hear in our songs... [Sing for the Moment] ~ Eminem

I can't stand rap ... people who can't sing do rap ... you can sing rebellion as well as talk it ... Hitler would have been in a rap band. ~ John Entwistle

Niggas' rap albums sound like love letters,
Pen in my hand, like: damn, fam, I could do much better. ~ Sean Price

I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it. ~ Talib Kweli

I haven't had time to have a real freak-out."
He shakes his head, determined. "I'm not going to give you time. Don't think. Oreos or M&Ms?"
"Oreos!"
"Summer or fall?!"
"Fall!"
"Tator tots or French fries?!"
"Both!"
"Do you want to marry me, yes or no?"
"YES!"
Then I jump across the car and kiss him so hard he falls back and crashes against the window. The kids in the rap car holler at us to get a room. ~ R.S. Grey

Nowadays, you gots ta walk the street and watch your back,
Cause brothers with the gats don't be knowin' how to act. ~ Shyheim