Madlib Quotes

I've been trying to nail it into everyone's heads that I feel like I am the most versatile rapper.

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

To me, rapping is an art.

I write poetry, and I put it to a beat - I mean, that's what they call rap.

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

I'm not completely at ease at rapping, I can't do it well yet.

I could rap really good on accident. I talk tight and it just sounded... I don't know. It's just such a big genre for me. At the end of the day, rap is the language of the world.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

The first album was 99 percent hard core to show you I was the best rhymer in the world.

I've been thinking of trying my hand at rap. I've been recording snippets on my BlackBerry.

You don't have to be a good singer any more if you can rap well.

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

I was rapping at eight.

When I found Freestyle Fellowship, I started getting into the construction of rap. You get better at it the more you do it; you figure out the science and the math behind it.

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.

I might not have the best flow, sound... but when it comes to wordplay, cuz, come on bro.

I loved writing lyrics for rap when I was in junior high. I loved studying, but somehow I wanted to be a rapper who can write and rap.

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.

Kendrick Lamar is not a whack rapper, not at all. Do I think he's a super-mega-lyricist? Not really.