Rakim Quotes

I’m not trying to be, like, the bisexual, lesbian rapper. I don’t live on other people’s terms.

I must be allowed to be as I am.

I'm always trying to slip out of those labels everyone tries to put round your neck. We all have multiple selves.

I don't use labels a lot.

Always take your own path. And do what feels right for you.

In a way, the most political thing you can do is be yourself.

I'm just doing what I want. I'm not thinking, like, 'Today I'm going to dress like a woman.' I'm not even thinking about that. I'm just thinking, 'I want to wear this today; I want to be this today.'

I think everyone should be their own individualized person.

I've got to do it my way. I can't compromise and be someone else.

Oh, I don't like labels.

But at the end of the day, I'm a girl. I'm from Santa Monica. I'm going to look how I want to look and play how I want to play, and if people don't like it, then they don't like it.

I am not interested in changing who I am to fit someone else's idea of what a category should be or look like.

I'm not trying to live anybody else's life.

I'm not going to be a rebel and offend anybody, but I'm not going to live in somebody else's image.

There are two metaphors for Mario the person and not Mario the footballer. I think I am a man, but I don't believe I need to say it. But I could also be Peter Pan because I do things my own way and I am free. So, yes, maybe I should say that I am Peter Pan - although I am much more of a man.

I've always done everything at my disposal to avoid labeling what I do, or to avoid being labeled myself.

You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life.

I want to be remembered as somebody that tried to respect her integrity as an artist and as a person. And I don't want to be in any box. I don't want to be one thing.

My life is not to be somebody else's impact - you know what I mean?

I have an aversion to being mislabeled. Here's a label I'd accept: I'm an 'individual.' I'm someone who can't follow, and doesn't want to lead.

I have the freedom to take chances, to say no. I have the freedom to be who I really want to be, rather than have to conform to this or that just to stay alive.

If you let society and your peers define who you are, you're the less for it.

I don't have to be what you want me to be.

I don't want to live up to how people expect me to be.

True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one's true character, to be altogether one's self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.