Gza Quotes

First thing you have to understand is that freestyling is much different than making hip-hop music: there's another whole element to being a hip-hop MC.

I still to this day get the most inspiration from rap lyrics.

But I've been freestyling and messing around with rhyming since I was 13. That's when I really started listening to hip-hop music.

I liked Big L's wordplay with the multi-syllable rhymes he hit so clean.

I am my own parent when it comes to rapping and do impromptu stuff. Being a rapper, you have to be good at improvising, like you give me a word and I have to rhyme it quickly and then make sense out of the rhyme.

When I did rap and rhyme, it wasn't just a word that rhymed with another one.

To me, rapping is an art.

I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim-dude, fancy-clothes look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap - there is no other choice, or else I get eaten alive.

When I was coming up, a freestyle wasn't a freestyle unless everything was completely improvised, in-the-moment and right there, and you had to incorporate various elements of what was going on in the room on the day.

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

Ultimately, I really like to rap, and seeing what I can do to keep it fresh for myself has lent itself to tailoring over time.

I had written rap songs in the early '90s and even did a couple homemade rap songs with my brother in like '88 or '89, but it was just like... I don't even know how to say it. Just plain rap. I was just rapping about whatever, there was no real style or direction, it was just semi-braggadocious rhymes that probably imitated 100 other rappers.

Longevity always come from lyricism. From the people who can actually rap.

I will rap circles around anybody.

I like lyrical rappers and turn up rappers.

If you actually understand and listen to what he's saying, there's no one that can compete with Eminem. That's why no one goes at Eminem because everybody knows Eminem is just, he's too good in a rap battle.

I got a close friend who raps.

I love rap, and I try to write a bit like a rapper, to have a flow.

If you're really a rapper, you can't stop rapping.

Rappers tend to use words sometimes that just rhyme and don't really mean nothing.

I mean, when it's time to rhyme rhyme, I can get down for mine.

Gibberish rap is - I freestyle all the time, just hangin' out with friends. And sometimes when I'm freestyling, I'll lose my flow, you know, but I'll still wanna - I don't wanna just stop rapping because I lose my flow. So I'll just put in nonsense words till I can bring in regular words again.

A lot of the younger kids now can rap, but they're scared of the crowd. Mastery of that stage is an MC. I don't know if you've seen any great MCs on stage but when you do it's like wow, this is more than the words to rhymes.

There's a guy on YouTube named Mac Lethal - he spits hot fire.

When I rap, I get to express myself in a way where putting words together is like poetry, and sometimes it's better to talk in certain expressions than sing, you know? So I love, I love to rhyme when I want to express certain things.