A poet’s mission is to make words do more work than they normally do, to make them work on more than one level.
I couldn’t even think about wanting to be something else; I wouldn’t let myself visualize another life. But I wrote because I couldn’t stop. It was a release, a mental exercise, a way of keeping sane.
Rosa Parks sat so Martin Luther King could walk. Martin Luther King walked so Obama could run. Obama’s running so we all can fly.
Only God can judge me so I’m gone, either love me or leave me alone.
You could name practically any problem in the hood and there’d be a rap song for you.
Rap has been a path between cultures in the best tradition of popular music.
Housing projects can seem like labyrinths to outsiders, as complicated and intimidating as a Moroccan bazaar. But we knew our way around.
Artists can have greater access to reality; they can see patterns and details and connections that other people, distracted by the blur of life, might miss. Just sharing that truth can be a very powerful thing.
No, I’m not interested in politics. I have zero interest. I have interest in hope and people.
Hip-hop is more about attaining wealth. People respect success. They respect big. They don’t even have to like your music. If you’re big enough, people are drawn to you.
Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all.
I’m a mirror. If you’re cool with me, I’m cool with you, and the exchange starts. What you see is what you reflect. If you don’t like what you see, then you’ve done something. If I’m standoffish, that’s because you are.
I made the Yankee hat more famous than a Yankee can.
Religion is like a personal computer. You let people in if you want to… We’re all gods.
I love what I do, and when you love what you do, you want to be the best at it.
Belief in oneself and knowing who you are, I mean, that’s the foundation for everything great.
My mom always taught me – you know, little boys listen to their moms too much – that whatever you put into something is what you’re going to get out of it.
I grew up in Marcy Projects in Brooklyn, and my mom and pop had an extensive record collection, so Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder and all of those sounds and souls of Motown filled the house.
As kids we didn’t complain about being poor; we talked about how rich we were going to be and made moves to get the lifestyle we aspired to by any means we could. And as soon as we had a little money, we were eager to show it.
I don’t think any rapper can go back. You can be a car salesman, a bank teller – I mean, really good jobs, and people are still gonna look at you and be like, ‘You used to rap; what happened?’
Shakespeare was a man who wrote poetry. I’m a man who writes poetry. Why not compare yourself to the best?
When you’re growing up, your dad is your superhero. Once you’ve let yourself fall that in love with someone, once you put him on such a high pedestal and he lets you down, you never want to experience that pain again.