Cupcakke Quotes

When I was young, I thought it was normal to go to sleep to the sounds of sirens. People on my block were in the biggest gang in the city. They were my close friends - they showed me the ropes, who to watch out for.

I grew up in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. At the time I was growing up with my father - before it was gentrified - it was a very rough neighborhood. He felt that if I got into or started embracing the rap culture, I would be one step closer to being on the streets.

The boys in the hood are always hard.

I rap about Memphis and what a dangerous spot that is.

I never thought I was going to leave the trap. I even told my mother, 'I'm gonna be the trap God.'

For thugs from the ghetto, violence is a way of life - it's what helps you survive.

I was raised on the streets, in hot, steamy Brooklyn, with stifled air.

The East Village is where I cut my teeth as a kid. I ran around here on a skateboard.

Where I'm from is like 'Hustle & Flow' versus '8 Mile.' It's that really grimy, box-Chevy, dope-boy, working-class music.

What people don't understand is joining a gang ain't bad, it's cool, it's fine. When you in the hood, joining a gang it's cool because all your friends are in the gang, all your family's in the gang. We're not just killing people every night, we're just hanging out, having a good time.

How could you be from the ghetto and be a rat?

I always felt that rap didn't cause crime; it just reflected it.

Where I come from, the block become your daddy.

I know people in gangs; I could have went down that route.

Highbridge - everybody rap in Highbridge; everyone grew up rappin' or playing basketball.

N.W.A. were the first great rap audio documentarians of the problems in our inner cities.

I grew up in an area of inner-city Liverpool. There were plenty of opportunities but also plenty of challenges - you could go down the right or wrong path, depending on one moment.

I'm going to make my own 'Trapped In The Closet' one day, about a black kid growing up in the hood.

I was, like, in a rap gang. I loved rap, and it was all around me.

When you're in a gang, you go through life like any other individual. You have certain obligations, but you are not forced to do anything.

I grew up in Compton: 116th and Wilmington.

The perpetuation of gangster rap has really put a negative image on the city of Compton... So I look forward to addressing that image, changing it and making it more accurate.

I'm from the same area as Gucci Mane. I stayed off Bouldercrest road. I stayed off Glenwood.

I go by the name of Polo G and I'm from the near North Side of Chicago, the 1300 block of Hudson Avenue.

Historically, hip-hop is about a generation of artists rapping about the realities they see in their neighborhoods or the 'truths' they hear growing up in their homes.