AJ Tracey Quotes

My dad's Nigerian, and I remember going to Nigeria, and all of these kids and adults and everyone in-between knew who TuPac was. They had TuPac t-shirts, TuPac posters, TuPac cassettes... everyone knew TuPac, and sometimes that was the only English that they spoke, was TuPac lyrics.

It's always hard for an artist from the U.K. to break into the United States. It's especially harder for a rapper because hip-hop is such an American art form.

Indigenous people have discovered that Christianity is not inherently Western but universal - 'translatable' into any cultural idiom.

They use all of the music that I did in the '50s, '60s and the '70s behind people like Tupac and LL Cool J. I'm into all that stuff.

I really love rap music. I grew up in the '80s and '90s with Public Enemy, N.W.A., LL Cool J - I'm a hip-hop encyclopedia. But I got kind of frustrated with the chauvinistic side of rap music, the one that makes it hard to write songs about love and relationships.

I like to make music, I like rap music. Even if I'm white, I support that music. If I want to support it or any other white kid wants to support it more power to them.

We've had American TV shows in Britain for years and that hasn't affected our culture at all.

'Yeezus,' I really love it. I think the sound of it is cool.

Hip-hop in Africa has been very often a duplication of an American experience, but in a context that's totally alien to it.

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 still back in Cameroon, because I didn't know English, I used to listen to French rap all the time and then a little bit of American hip-hop. And then, when I got to the States, that's when I really got into all those guys - Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, all those guys.

I wanted to be a poet. I fell in love with poetry around eight years old, but not through literature. Instead, it came through hip-hop lyrics and my obsession with reading liner notes. Queen Latifah's 'Black Reign' is the album that stands out the most.

I appreciate Drake's music, I appreciate Future's music, I appreciate Lil Durk's music. I appreciate Uzi, Meek Mill, I appreciate Migos.

I love Lil Wayne. I grew up on the Hot Boyz.

We cannot just ape the west. What may be good in an alien country may be unpalatable in India.

I'm not just a great white rapper. I'm a great rapper.

I love Pusha T and The Clipse.

I love Pink and Nelly Furtado - the honesty and truth in their lyrics. I also love Kendrick Lamar and Chance the Rapper.

Coming up, the music of my era was very conscious. I grew up on Public Enemy, and it was popular culture to be aware. People were wearing Malcolm X T-shirts and Malcolm X hats. It was a very cool thing to know who Malcolm X was. It was all in the lyrics. It was trendy to be conscious and aware.

The funniest thing in the world to me is the idea of a white guy in his thirties going, 'Wait - I'm going to go into hip-hop.'

Coming from a different perspective on a society is really interesting. I love the Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Phantom Thread,' and that's a version of Britishness and Englishness made by an American.

Jay-Z was huge. I was like 2 years old throwing up my diamond, rapping. I know all of 'The Blueprint.' I've heard that album 1,000 times. And 'Reasonable Doubt.'

I like Kendrick a lot.

People keep saying I'm westernizing Chinese food. No I'm not. McDonald's, KFC, Starbucks, have done it big time, way before me.

You can't do gospel and rap. Either you're of the gospel music, or you're a rapper. You can't put the two together. You can, but is it right? It's questionable.