R. Kelly Quotes

Not everybody is a great rapper; not everybody lives for the art of lyricism.

Hip-hop is not all '2 Chainz' - although '2 Chainz' is awesome. How he does that with metaphors, I don't know.

Eminem has been someone that I've always considered the greatest ever, to ever do it. You know what I mean? In every aspect, the storytelling abilities, lyrical ability, honesty. You can hear it in my music that I'm heavily influenced by that.

Ever since I was a kid I've been rapping.

I love rap lyrics, I love hearing people rap, I love molding a thought or idea into the shape that fits on a rap beat.

Biggie and Big Pun were the best storytellers of the '90s. I would get wrapped up in the narrative of what they were talking about.

I still very much appreciate the storytelling of the best rappers.

I think that rap is narrative, when it's done right.

I came up in hip-hop, where people value the ability to tell it straight.

Big Rube was on my first album and some of my mixtapes. His words are so powerful. I want to speak every word he says into existence. I wanna be a part of that! I wanna be a part of greatness. His wordplay is great to me.

Drake, I'd like to collaborate with. He's a phenomenal lyricist. Probably the best rapper in the world at the moment. I love Kanye but there's something about Drake; he's more straight up, really clever and really poetic and metaphorical - I love that. He's just clever.

I think hip-hop does a very good job of infusing comedy and humor and wit into music, a lot more than other genres.

I was rapping at eight.

The MC that we love are usually the ones that we consider be kinda heartless, like 50 Cent. That's pretty much the prowess and power of an MC. That's what sells.

I listen a lot to rap, and I'm inspired to take it, to use it in another way, to get the message across.

I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.

As far as rapping goes, as long as you are telling the truth and you have a good flow, then you win.

When you're looking for good lyrics, you turn to Kendrick Lamar, you turn to J Cole, you turn to Wale, you turn to Chance the Rapper, you turn to Rapsody. You don't turn to Post Malone.

Nas' storytelling was just fire.

What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.

When I was growing up, to be an emcee meant to write the most clever, intellectual, and wittiest rap. And that's what we did.

Lil Wayne, that was one of my main influences, music-wise, because of his wordplay and metaphors.

A good rapper is an amazing thing to me. It's like a 17th-, 18th-century poet.

Everything is organic. I got the wordplay, I got the vocabulary to really, really rap.

When I started listening to rap music, I loved the fact that there were stories being told in 16 bars.