Rick Famuyiwa Quotes

My parents were fairly young in the city of Compton. So the things that they played - you know, that was the hip crowd. So I was being exposed to all these ideas, from Big Daddy Kane to Eazy-E to the Bay Area - Too Short, E-40 - you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.

Hip hop is the strongest form of protest there is, and it doesn't always have to be a violent protest. It can be romantic, also. When you listen to Kanye West's 'Street Lights' for example, there's romance, there's pain - you feel the essence. I get the same thing from Drake and 2 Chainz.

Hip-hop is substance. It's social. It's science - that's what it started off as. We have fun, and we still having fun; ain't nothing wrong with fun, but we need that social, we need that substance, we need that science, and we need that spiritual.

To me, the NWA is a thing of the past.

Thank you to Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Universal Studios, and the Grammys for telling the story of what Compton was and is becoming.

That's what hip-hop is: It's sociology and English put to a beat, you know.

Who gave it that title, gangsta rap? It's reality rap. It's about what's really going on.

I got Ice Cube his start. I also launched Eazy-E.

Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years. It's a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment.

The thing about hip-hop today is it's smart, it's insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

Hip-hop, which is my generation's blues, is important to the characters that I write about. They use hip-hop to understand the world through language.

Eazy-E is going to remain Eazy-E. But I will not portray Compton as a bad city.

I was the biggest Public Enemy fan - I think it's what inspired the aggression of N.W.A. We just took a different route lyrically.

I put Compton on the map.

People forget how dominant Public Enemy became in the mid '80s. No one talks about how transformative they were. And then that led to the '90s and the sort of East Coast v. West Coast stuff, which is kinda when I came of age.

When Tupac came out, my writing changed for sure. I learned from it. It was a cultural thing.

Rappers are the white authors of our generation. They know me, my language, my codes, my family, my block.

Kendrick Lamar represents Compton's evolution, embodying the New Vision for Compton - Purpose, Prosperity, and Progress.

Gangsta rap was the most important movement since the beginning of rock n' roll.

'Straight Outta Compton' was such a great movie, and obviously, I'm in the music business, so getting to see that piece of history was amazing, and it was an incredible movie.

I always make hardcore songs, hits for the block.

Wu-Block is more street. It's just street, that's all.

Dre is someone I've looked up to since 1985 when he came to my college and performed with The Wrecking Crew.

I was a Dr. Dre fan.

I felt like I related to East Coast lyricism a little more. Because I couldn't be super gangsta.