The Notorious B.I.G. Quotes

I've been rapping since 1979.

Another thing about me dealing with the old school rappers, you see a lot of humility. When you're new, nothing is wrong. Everything is tight. Because you're trying to hype the world into believing in you.

I used to make demo tapes with cats that rocked with Russell Simmons and people like that. The history goes so far back; I've always been really focused on writing dope rhymes.

Around the time that I was in high school, a lot of rappers were coming out with mixtapes of them rapping over other people's instrumentals, specifically Young Money.

I listen to a lot of Solange. I love old-school as well.

Some guy was just like, 'You rap fast, man. Like a little machine gun,' and from that moment, I was Lil Uzi.

I always argue with a lot of people. They ask me for my top rappers, and he's always on my list. I mean, the GZA inspired me.

Nas was a huge influence. That's probably my favorite rapper of all time.

I care most about what rappers think about me as a rapper, and I've gotten a lot of praise. I think rappers understand I'm a really good rapper, and that means more to me than a random person, you know, 'cause they know what goes into making rap music.

I'd be making a fool of myself if I thought I was a rapper.

I worked with Busta back in the days, shoutout to the OG Busta Rhymes.

I got a close friend who raps.

I mean, Common was and is like my favorite rapper.

Our talent and skill as rappers is clearly the first thing you notice. I don't know what we were thinking. We just really love rap and wanted to be rappers. Is that weird?

I was always into the West Coast rap, the production and the flows were always more appealing to me. I think my rapping days are over though.

Mase was never a filthy artist.

Everything is organic. I got the wordplay, I got the vocabulary to really, really rap.

I'm a real rapper.

When I was a kid, I was just rapping about school and stuff like that.

When you get my 'Supreme Clientele,' it is straight bars.

I was a rapper who was 13 or 14 years old at one point, and it was a dream. I used to see videos of other rappers around the world, and I used to hope that I could be like that one day.

I am a big music guy. Hip-hop, R&B, old school, jazz.

Everybody nowadays rhymes, but out of the people that really, really do it well, it's still a small community of artists. We all tend to be in the same circles - people like my Wu-Tang brothers, or Black Thought from The Roots.

When I did rap and rhyme, it wasn't just a word that rhymed with another one.

You can't tell my fans that there's a better rapper than Machine Gun Kelly... Hands down, there's no way I'm not in the top five.