Hip Hop Music Quotes

My inspiration for writing music is like Don McLean did when he did "American Pie" or "Vincent". Lorraine Hansberry with "A Raisin in the Sun". Like Shakespeare when he does his thing, like deep stories, raw human needs.

I'm trying to think of a good analogy. It's like, you've got the Vietnam War, and because you had reporters showing us pictures of the war at home, that's what made the war end, or that shit would have lasted longer. If no one knew what was going on we would have thought they were just dying valiantly in some beautiful way. But because we saw the horror, that's what made us stop the war.

So I thought, that's what I'm going to do as an artist, as a rapper. I'm gonna show the most graphic details of what I see in my community and hopefully they'll stop it quick.

I've seen all of that-- the crack babies, what we had to go through, losing everything, being poor, and getting beat down. All of that. Being the person I am, I said no no no no. I'm changing this. ~ Tupac Shakur

I don't like shit too perfect. I want some human stake in my shit. If it's too perfect I ain't really with it. If it's too clean I ain't really with it. If it's too polished I don't really like it. ~ Madlib

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

Hip-hop music was something I grew up with, it was something that I loved since I was a little kid, and it's something that I chose to partake in an early age. ~ Ryan Lewis

I'm actually a huge fan of hip-hop. I like hip-hop music. I love rap. I like cabaret music, as well. I just love live music and bands. ~ Britney Spears

I was a hip-hop head. When I really found my own lane in music, it was hip-hop. I wanted to make hip-hop music. And I did, I made a lot of hip-hop music. ~ Mayer Hawthorne

Hip Hop Generation "captures the collective hopes and nightmares, ambitions and failures of those who would otherwise be described as "post-this" or "post-that." ~ Jeff Chain

What I value most in new music is strangeness, oddity. Passion. And humor. I listen to a lot of hip-hop because it combines so many things like that. ~ Carrie Brownstein

I identified with white culture, and I wanted to fit in. I didn't identify with black culture. Like, I didn't like Tyler Perry movies, and I wasn't into hip-hop music. I liked Neil Young. ~ Zoe Kravitz

I can't really even name a person I like in hip-hop music. ~ Angel Haze

I was listening to a lot of hip hop, music like Public Enemy that was about raising consciousness, and I realised I could feed that directly into my work, using images in a way that was a bit like sampling - taking images from diverse places, exploring the contradictions without trying to hide the seams. ~ Chris Ofili

In the late '80s and early '90s, there was a slightly retro drum sound that was popular in hip-hop music called the 808 bass drum sound. It was the bass drum sound on the 808 drum machine, and it's very deep and very resonant, and was used as the backbone as a lot of classic hip-hop tracks. ~ Steve Albini

I could hear music playing in the background of works by certain authors, like Poe and Shakespeare. And I discovered Nikki Giovanni when I was in eighth grade. Her writing has a musical energy with pulse and rhythm, almost like jazz or hip-hop. ~ Jill Scott

Pop culture mirrored the segregation. ~ Jeff Chain

Hip-hop music has done a very good job of maintaining the political context, where they stand and not giving a sh-t what people think. ~ Conor Oberst

Salsa, classic rock, soul music, jazz ... all of that was a part of my education in making hip-hop music. ~ Aloe Blacc

I think of hip hop as a mass media, radio, MTV thing. It's been extremely relevant over the last 10 years and rock music is just not anymore - -a tear rolls down my cheek as I say that. ~ Win Butler

I had gone to a talent show - I was interested in American hip-hop music - with my older brother, to another town, and my town was attacked. I went from having an entire family to the next minute not having anything. It was very painful. ~ Ishmael Beah

When I was growing up, hip-hop music existed as American thing. If you listened to it you were listening to an American subculture, whereas now you're just listening to pop music that everyone shares. I think that's big. ~ Jonas Carpignano

I like hip-hop music, but some of the lyrics make me want to cry. ~ Patti LaBelle

What I feel with the best of hip-hop music and with the best of what has been produced by hip-hop culture is that it's going to be timeless, and it's going to last. ~ Simon De Pury

I have considered rap music stars, and there is one in my new book, Lovers and Players, and there is also a hip-hop music mogul who I think you will like a lot. ~ Jackie Collins

Hip-hop is such an amazing thing that kids still want to do it. They're not saying, "Ugh, that's the old people's music." No, they're younger than they've ever been that want to get into hip-hop music. ~ Nas

The part of modern pop music I don't know much about is hip hop. ~ James Mercer

Hip hop music (and the entire category) is one of few that unite fans of all colors, races, religions, socio-economic backgrounds, ages and genders. ~ Carlos Wallace

The only reason I am successful is because I have stayed true to myself. ~ Lindsey Stirling

I am so all over the place with my music taste, it's ridiculous. It is! I mean, I find myself listening to weird things like hardcore techno music and then I'll be listening to mainstream hip-hop music. But it's like I am so crazy with my music taste. I'll listen to a song, I'll become obsessed with it, and then I'm on to the next one. So it's just very inconsistent. ~ Taylor Lautner

I listen to all kinds of songs. There's something to be learned from every type of music and from the one making it, whether it's pop or jazz or hip-hop. ~ Brian McKnight

To have mentors and moguls like Russell Simmons and Chuck D pushing me forward and empowering my movement makes me all the more eager to continue pursuing my dream to make my mark on hip hop music and culture. ~ Lazarus Of Bethany

I'm really into old school music when hip-hop first came out with Common, A Tribe Called Quest, Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, and Run DMC. I'm really into that! Hip-hop these days isn't the same and doesn't have the same sound anymore. I'd rather listen to the old school hip-hop. ~ Raven Goodwin

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. ~ El-P

There's no borders or lines you can't cross anymore. Everything is getting blended with everything. That's the dope thing about music now. Some people don't like it, more of the older people. They want to, you know, go back to old-school New York hip-hop. ~ ASAP Ferg

It ain't about keeping real, it's about keeping it right. ~ Jeff Chain

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. ~ El-P

I've been writing songs and making music since I was probably ten years old ... so my inspirations back then, I don't know - I guess it was something that was innate. I was really shaped to make hip-hop music and love hip hop. ~ Hoodie Allen

I grew up in New York City in the '80s, and it was the epicenter of hip-hop. There was no Internet. Cable television wasn't as broad. I would listen to the radio, hear cars pass by playing a song, or tape songs off of the radio. At that time, there was such an excitement around hip-hop music. ~ Michael Rapaport

I can take any series of numbers and turn it into music, from Bach to bebop, Herbie Hancock to hip-hop. ~ Donald Byrd

I'm someone that examines culture and tries to break down why things are the way that they are whether its hip-hop music, sex, race, or consumerism. I try to examine it and scrutinize it to the point where I can write a song. ~ Macklemore

I love hip-hop music, ... It's rebel music is how I like to speak about it. Hip-hop and reggae come from the same community as far as class ... they both come from the bottom of society. ~ Damian Marley

I feel like everything I do in the hip-hop world has an influence. People don't really notice what I did until somebody else does it. As far as hip-hop goes, I want to continue to make good music, and good art. I don't really follow the state of hip-hop. ~ ASAP Rocky

Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music. ~ Jay-Z

When I started, I was 23 years old directing my own music videos; I'm co-producing on my album; I'm hands-on with everything. I'm more than just a pretty boy: I'm an artist. I'm not saying I'm a hip-hop music artist, I'm an artiste. ~ ASAP Rocky

The business of beauty isn't a natural model;
It's built to be the opposite of the cultures we topple.
These magazines got you caught in a hustle,
Cause when you starve yourself, your body doesn't burn fat, it burns muscles. ~ Immortal Technique

Whenever you have a crisis, you're always going to have the extremists taking advantage of the situation. ~ Abdallah II Of Jordan

I'm that neighborhood blizzard flooding these streets with snow. ~ Kool G Rap

Rap is something you do Hip Hop is something you live ~ KRS-One

There's not a hip-hop artist that didn't snatch of piece of Bob Marley. It's totally impossible. ~ Wyclef Jean

Bebop and hip-hop, in so many ways, they're connected. A lot of rappers remind me so much of bebop guys in terms of improvisation, beats and rhymes. My dream is to see hip-hop incorporated in education. You've got the youth of the world in the palm of your hand. ~ Quincy Jones

Oy vey, these guys is New York's spineless
Strangled and denied it for Anthony Baez ~ Himanshu Suri

Everything has a price ...
No matter if it's fortune, fame or your life.
I understood later that it's all about paper,
Everything has a fee in the land of the free. ~ O.C.

I can't take it y'all
I can feel the city breathin
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving ~ Mos Def

I keep thinking how young can you die from old age ~ Drake

I come prepared with the white suit and stethoscope,
Listen to your heartbeat, delete beep beep BEEP.
Your insurance is high, but my price is cheap. ~ Kool Keith

Bouncing in the club where the heat is on,
All night on the beach till the break of dawn ~ Will Smith

Life is a b*tch depending how you dress her. ~ Kanye West

Rappers can't sleep, need sleepin',
B.I.G. keep creepin',
Bullets heat-seekin',
Casualties need treatin',
Dumb rappers need teachin'. ~ The Notorious B.I.G.

Of course, the opposite of white privilege is not blackness, as many of us seemed to think then; the opposite of white privilege is working to dismantle that privilege. But my particular hip-hop generation proved to be very serious about figuring it all out and staying engaged. ~ Adam Mansbach

Blue jeans, white shirt
Walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn
It was like, James Dean, for sure
You're so fresh to death and sick as ca-cancer
You were sorta punk rock, I grew up on hip hop
But you fit me better than my favourite sweater, and I know
That love is mean, and love hurts
But I still remember that day we met in december, oh baby!

I will love you 'til the end of time
I would wait a million years
Promise you'll remember that you're mine
Baby can you see through the tears
Love you more
Than those bitches before
Say you'll remember, oh baby, say you'll remember
I will love you 'til the end of time

Big dreams, gangster
Said you had to leave to start your life over
I was like, "No please, stay here,
We don't need no money we can make it all work,"
But he headed out on sunday, said he'd come home monday
I stayed up waitin', anticipatin', and pacin'
But he was chasing paper
"Caught up in the game" ‒ that was the last I heard

I will love you 'til the end of time
I would wait a million years
Promise you'll remember that you're mine
Baby can you see through the tears
Love you more
Than those bitches before
Say you'll remember, oh baby, say you'll remember
I will love you 'til the end of time

You went out every night
And baby that's alright
I told you that no matter what y ~ Lana Del Rey

If I have learned anything from hip-hop, it's that there's nothing sexy about a baby that ain't yours. ~ Amy Poehler

Today's Baudelaires are hip-hop artists. ~ Jonathan Franzen

Truth brings light, light refracts off the mirror,
Visions of yourself and error could never be clearer.
The truth is that you ugly ...
Not on the outside, but in the inside;
On the outside, you frontin' you lovely. ~ Pharoahe Monch

The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable. ~ Barack Obama

Just think: what if you could just, just blink yourself away? ~ Black Thought

Her bikini - small; heels - tall
She said she liked the ocean. ~ LL Cool J

From wrestling to my hip-hop thing, I've just been able to do so much and meet so many crazy characters. ~ Randy Savage

I got this black chick, she don't know how to act
Always talkin' out her neck, makin' her fingers snap
She like, Listen Jigga Man, I don't care if you rap
You better - R-E-S-P-E-C-T me ~ Jay-Z

You have to use what you have in order to get what you need and the people can not be rich unless somebody is rich. The Hip-Hop generation has carried more people with it than any other enterprise Black Americans have had. ~ Nikki Giovanni

I cannot stand no wack MC.
So step back if you please,
And don't test me, you're history. ~ Del Tha Funkee Homosapien

Braniac dumb-dumbs, bust the scientifical,
Approach to the course and the force is centrifugal.
Can you find your way through the lyrics that be catchin' 'em?
Throw another rhyme across the room, they be fetchin' 'em. ~ Masta Ace

I'm raised from gutter to protect another gutter ~ Kjiva

If I ruled the world Imagine that ... ~ Nas

Life is about perspective and I have a different perspective from most. I am not trying to be in Hip Hop at 43 and looking like an old man. I always enjoyed business and my independence. I am an Entrepreneur. ~ Damon Dash

Me and Marcus Allen went over to see Nicole
We heard a knock at the door, must have been Ron Gold'
Jumped behind the door, put the orgy on hold
Killed em both and smeared blood on the white Bronco ~ Eminem

You'll be fooled if you only get your hip-hop from the mainstream, you know. The things that move people are not just found in the mainstream cultures. And when we talk about hip-hop in general, hip-hop's basically preoccupied with life. ~ Talib Kweli

50 told me go head and switch the style up and if they hate, let 'em hate, watch the money pile up. ~ Kanye West

You were put here to protect us.
But who protects us from you? ~ KRS-One

Maybe I need somebody that could save me
From the parts of myself that keep making me crazy. ~ Slug

Now on the first day of Christmas, my homeboy gave to me
A sack of the krazy glue and told me to smoke it up slowly.
Now on the second day of Christmas, my homeboy gave to me
A fifth of Hendog and told me to take my mind off that weed.
Now by the third day of Christmas, my big homeboy gave to me
A whole lot of everything, and it wasn't nuthin' but game to me. ~ Snoop Dogg

Why is the world round?
Why do the suckas bite?
Why do the freaks come out at night?
Why they paint Jesus white?
I sit and wonder why we breakin hip-hop laws,
Doing videos in houses that we know ain't yours. ~ Lee Majors

There's always going to be space for battle in hip hop. For competition. It's just an inseparable part of the game. ~ Nas

I don't know what's better: getting laid or getting paid.
I just know when I'm getting one, the other's getting away. ~ Kanye West

I was very introverted growing up and I had small circle of friends. Any opportunity I got to rap or articulate things through rhyme or hip hop was great for me. ~ LeCrae

We got it on lock like Barack got the nomination ~ Masta Ace

Oh, my other goal was that I wanted to talk about this area and this time in history. I wanted to talk about growing up in Oakland, a white kid, from this kind of generation of broken homes and listening to hip-hop. ~ Moshe Kasher

Feed me hip-hop and I start tremblin' ~ Rakim