Kyle Quotes

The first rappers I ever got into were Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, and Nas. Those are the guys. Those are the dudes that flipped my wig.

I feel like this - everybody, every rapper to me, I feel like every rapper got a little bit of E-40 in them, whether they know it or not.

A lot of rappers were influenced off the West Coast, even from the East.

I got into hip hop from my uncle; he was always playing us Kool G Rap and Big Daddy Kane. He was a bad boy, and my mum was not really happy that I was hanging out with him.

The song, 'Life is Better,' is about hip-hop. It's about my love for hip-hop. And, you know, I go through all the artists from the beginning to the end, you know. And, well, not to the end, but since the beginning to now, you know.

Growing up in the Bay, I was still looking for a lot of East Coast hip-hop. I had an older homie put me on to a lot of stuff like Nas' 'Illmatic.'

I think people that came out originally, like 2Pac, Biggie, Snoop Dogg,, and even T.I. and Ludacris, they were original with their vibe, but at the same time, they were classics.

I grew up listening to a lot of rap music. My dad's a DJ from Brooklyn, and he's a very soulful guy, so he always spun a lot of hip-hop, and that's where I get a lot of my hip-hop influence.

Wu-Tang has opened many doors for hip hop.

Randomly enough, all of my favorite rappers growing up were East Coast rappers. I don't know. I just related to them a little more at first - because if you're born in L.A., and you lived there your whole life, Snoop Dogg literally sounds like cars driving by. You feel me? You hear Snoop Dogg so much.

Anything that Havoc or I do is always going to point back to Mobb Deep.

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

As far as rap goes, I grew up in Hollis, Queens, so early influences were people like Run DMC and LL Cool J.

'Going Back to Cali' is one of my favorite songs because of all the East Coast - West Coast rivalry.

I come from the golden age of hip hop when all the greats came on the scene.

When you go back and really listen to the legendary rappers, this is timeless music. Guys like Biggie, guys like Pac, timeless music.

Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.

I grew up listening to a lot of early '90s hip-hop. I had the debut Wu-Tang album, Biggie, Snoop, that kind of stuff. Hieroglyphics, the Gravediggaz. I remember D.O.C.'s 'The Portrait of a Masterpiece' was something that had a big influence on me.

There's a great documentary on Tupac called 'Resurrection' about the last few years of Tupac's life and how he transformed. And, ironically, how this East Coast rapper became this West Coast icon, back when all that Death Row/Sean Combs stuff was going on.

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.

I would say I'm a fan of late '90s to early 2000s rap. That's where I get all my inspiration from.

The music is just real powerful when Mobb Deep and Nas work together.

I always wanted the flowiness that hip-hop artists had. I always admired how they rapped so fast, but I never wanted to rap; I wanted to sing the rap.

For me, I put Mac Dre right up there with Biggie and 'Pac as legends who have since passed on.

The old West Coast rappers are the way I rap; they weren't always on beat but it was about telling a story. I'm just a little more modern so it doesn't sound exactly the same.