Rakim Quotes

I grew up in New York City in the '80s, and it was the epicenter of hip-hop. There was no Internet. Cable television wasn't as broad. I would listen to the radio, hear cars pass by playing a song, or tape songs off of the radio. At that time, there was such an excitement around hip-hop music.

Hip-hop went through different stages, from the beginning in the streets of the Bronx, to the whole Tri-State area and then to the rest of the United States and the rest of the world.

I'm a huge hip-hop fan from way back in the day.

I'm a huge hip hop fan going way back, like, back to '83. I had my Gemini mixer listening to Run-DMC and Kurtis Blow.

I come from a traditional hip-hop background.

I would have to be traditional and say that my favorite era of hip-hop was between '85-'89. That was the era that got me to love hip-hop.

Hip hop was definitely, far and away, the primary influence for at least 10 years of my life. From about 7 or 8 on till about 15 or 16, that's all I listened to.

Hip-hop is like underground. I don't know if hip-hop exists anymore. I don't know if it does.

One thing I always loved about hip-hop music was the raw, boom-bap element - it felt powerful and manly.

When you talk about rap you have to understand that rap is part of the Hip-Hop culture.

Hip-hop was fast, originally. It was always fast music.

I am hip-hop!

I love hip-hop. I have gone through many difference phases in my love affair with hip-hop.

When I first heard hip-hop, in 1976, there were maybe only 500 people that could do it.

Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I've been around since 1986.

Hip-hop has always been evolving.

My dad was an early hip-hop fan.

Nineties hip-hop in particular really shaped what became the common pop cultural language that we all speak.

I grew up a hip-hop kid doing mix-tapes.

Hip-hop started with street poets with great lyrical skills, and that's what hip-hop has always been about for me.

Every generation brings its own presentation of what hip-hop is to them.

When my time is up in hip-hop, it's going to remain what Afrika Bambaataa thought it was supposed to be. It's going to remain what Kool Herc thought it was supposed to be; what Wu-Tang Clan sees it as; what Outkast sees it as; what Snoop Dogg sees it as. People are trying to forget that brand of hip-hop.

Hip-hop is a worldwide culture. We have permeated every urban environment.

My entryway into hip-hop was - my biggest introduction was obviously like, you know, the Def Jam, Run D.M.C., Beastie Boys, like, that conglomerate.

I was born in Hip Hop. That's all I ever needed.