Rakim Quotes

It's either you finna create your own wave, you finna sound like me or you finna sound like G Herbo, you finna sound like Chance The Rapper, you finna sound like Juice Wrld. You ain't gonna get too far 'cause you sound like somebody. So, create your own lane and do your own style.

An artist is a person who has invented an artist.

I don't try to make the guitar sound like the harpsichord or lute. That makes you end up being like a bad copy.

Just trying to be different - when I hear something - I don't like to go trampling on other people's sounds.

If you're not observing the world around you, in some sense you're not really an artist because then that means you're just replicating other people's stuff, or, I don't even know what you're doing.

You're always going to sound like yourself, but you can make really strong attempts to keep some similarities, but move away from what you did before for popularity's sake.

What is nice about country music today is that most artists are not trying to do something everybody else is doing. They really are trying to develop their own uniqueness.

An original artist is unable to copy. So he has only to copy in order to be original.

I'm not the first guy to make a record or to make hip-hop, but I did it differently.

Probably the No. 1 most important thing in my music is not to sound like anyone else. It is hard in this day and age.

It's not enough to play the old songs; that feels like being your own covers band or something. It's a big release to do new stuff.

Artists should never look at pictures, but should stutter in a language of their own.

An artist must find his expression closely linked to his individual experience or else follow in the old grooves resulting in lifeless forms.

What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong with that? On the contrary, it's a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch... And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself.

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of nature, but the grandchild. It is always best to have recourse to nature, which is replete with such abundance of objects, than to the productions of other masters, who learnt everything from her.

A lot of people have that story that they used to sell crack or shoot people; that's nothing new. But honestly, if that was me, I probably still wouldn't be doing that because it's so many people that's doing that. It just gets old when you hear a million raps about how many ways I could shoot you. So I just try to be more creative and come with something new because I actually care about the music.

If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.

I've never sampled just one artist, I'm known for my reputation and my creativity.

I always strive to make my music unique.

My goal is to not fit in. My worst nightmare is being the baby version of another artist.

I've always taken it upon myself to be a pioneer or a leader, and create a different sound, not just go by what the radio is playing at the time.

Sometimes when you sing someone else's song over and over again or songs that have been given to you, you're afraid to go out there and write one yourself.

You could say, 'Oh, we're gonna write the heaviest album of all time' or 'We're gonna write an album that sounds like 'Iowa.'' Even if we set out to try to do so, it would never compare. We're not those people anymore, we're not that band anymore.

I don't know how the rap game is, because I'm a fan of reality, and the rap game's entertainment.

Don't be afraid to play what you feel and what you think no matter what it is. If you play long enough, you start to move past your influences and find your own music.