DJ Premier Quotes

I was never just a 'fill in 16 bars on a beat' rapper. I was making real songs from the jump.

I used to print out lyrics from Nas songs and write my own lyrics in the same syllable count but with different words and different rhymes.

Rappers should sit down and construct quality lines.

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've been known to drop a spoken-word bit into a song from time to time. But not straight-up rap. I don't know that I have that gift.

Rap lyrics are really the only thing I've ever written.

Some MCs don't take the time to take a beat home or just vibe with it and just figure out, 'How do I attack this track?'

When I first started making music, I was pretty drawn to hip-hop beats wrapped together with super-good lyrics. The most important thing in that is wordplay, so that stayed with me when I started writing songs.

I'm really big into lyrics in my own songs, so I look up to Drake in that aspect.

I freestyled the hook to 'Target.' I got into cadence and then it sparked the idea.

It's certain rappers that can really rap, that really spit all bars, so I understand why someone would say, 'You not a real rapper.' But the main thing is, if you can make good songs, who cares? So I don't know why guys be tripping on Drake. He makes great music. He's dope.

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.

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

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

Just knowing how to rap doesn't necessarily mean that you're a good songwriter.

One of the hardest things about writing lyrics is to make the lyrics sit on the music in such a way that you're not aware there was a writer there.

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling.

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.

I find it harder to write the lyrics afterwards because then you're just trying to fit them into something that's already there.

A lot of the hip hop artists don't write music. They write words.

Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.

You know how a person is made for something? Eminem is made for hip-hop. The best rapper is a white man.

I really wanted to work hard on my lyrics.

I'm not tryin' to come off as the best lyricist.