Ice T Quotes

I've always been rapping before I was making money off of it. Before I made a profit, I had always been rapping.

Everyone has the notion that hip-hop is messy and loose, but there's also another level to it.

Hip-hop don't have no fresh energy, none at all. It's money driven, everybody tryin' to make that cheque, nobody putting art in their albums any more.

I understand what rappers are talking about. I think rap is less about educating people about the black community and more about making money.

It's never been about making money.

I love hip hop, and I have a bunch of urban songs I write for fun that I can't put on my albums because people would laugh and point.

I'ma just rap and do me.

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

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.

Rap music deserves truth, and it deserves spontaneity.

If you want to make money, that's great, but if you make great music, you're going to make money anyway. Keep your eyes on making a great product. You don't even have to promote it.

I care about music and money. I'm an artist first.

When I began to rap, I wasn't taking it real serious. As I start seeing good things, it's getting serious.

I was just trying to fit into a certain spectrum. Just like, basic rap.

I'm not Tupac or this prophetic dude or anything like that. I just want to make music and have fun.

If you're in it for the money, there is no way you will ever make it! Never. That's not going to get you there at all. I just made fun video with my friends. That's the key.

Pac was real, and he put everything into that music with the passion, creativity, and the drive, and I feel like it's all one in the same with myself.

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

In hip-hop, what you have is you have a lot of formulaic-type bands or rappers that come up. They saw something on the radio, and they want to mimic that formula. And that's just boring. I don't wanna record something just to make money; I want to record something to enjoy it and have fun because I'm a music lover.

There is nothing wrong with making money, but that's not particularly inspiring.

I just want to make good music. That's it. That's what I care about.

Hip-hop is the last true folk art.

Most managers in the rock n' roll world... don't care so much about who's in the band as long as it's making money.

I like the way hip-hop is now. It's grown up enough so that it can get involved with politics if it feels like it.

Most of the music you hear on the radio today is developed for making money. It doesn't feel true or honest. You can feel it in the music.