Mark Ronson Quotes

Like with me, like around '97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized - I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.

With every song, all the elements have to work. First, the beat has to be great - you start there. You start with the music, and then the ideas follow. Then you start thinking of rhymes, and then you record it, and sometimes - this happens to me a lot - it doesn't come out as good as it did in my head when I first wrote it.

I try to get the hip-hop aesthetic, most times without an MC. I don't use a rapper or a DJ to give it the hip-hop style; it's strictly the band that makes that music, which is a lot harder to do.

I would love to have a rapper on one of my songs, like Ludacris, or the 'it's so hot in here' guy, Nelly.

I really wanna make hip-hop music, but I don't know how to use any of the tools. Electronic, computer skills, I don't have those for engineering or making beats. I don't know how to use a sampler well. I don't know how to use any of these things.

I grew up hip-hop dancing; I've always wanted to create music that I could dance to.

I think it's so important that you want to be in the room with these people making music together, because that's what it's all about. Especially hip-hop music, because you have to be vibing.

'Who Do You Love' was kinda cool to make. I just made the beat; I was self-determined to make beats at the time.

I love Dilla, and who knows where this beat thing would be without him.

I've worked with incredible producers in the past, but when me and El-P got in a room, there was no way I was going to let off his head because not only was he one of the greatest producers I heard, he was one of the illest rappers I had ever heard.

All the Public Enemy albums, I knew what records they were sampling but was like, 'How'd they construct it like this?!'

I wanted to rap, but I needed beats. I couldn't buy any, so I just made my own.

Premier came into the picture when were starting to make our own beats and all that.

Oh man, I think Damian Lillard makes good music. He has bars.

Sampling is very important for me. It's the backbone of hip-hop.

I had eJay, and then I had Acid Pro. I had a crack of both of them, and I would just make little loops, and then I'd hum along to them. I used to spend a lot of time on a computer looking for music and making beats and stuff.

I get upset when people knock hip-hop, because I can absolutely see the musicality in it. These days, when I'm listening to records by hip-hop artists, I hear the production. It's just astounding how great the productions have become.

I enjoy writing rhymes and sitting alone in a room listening to beats. It's pretty amazing.

I never write. Never! I do not even remember if I can write … This is a true freestyle in general. I put a beat, I said some stuff, I retain ideas, I do it again, with a particular intonation, I test, and especially I record live.

I make make music in my own time, messing around with beats and riffs I write. Always practicing performing in my room most times I probably look like an idiot dancing around haha.

I started freestyling with friends about eight or nine years ago. I started writing also around the same time, but didn't meet blockhead until about '94. I started making beats not until about '96.

Back then all I cared about was rhyming and making beats. That was my trade, my hobby.

I'm intrigued on how music is made, that's how I started getting into it. Of course I've been in the booth before, just joking around to see how it is, and I'll make a couple of beats here or there and help my artists out. But other that, I'll stick to listening.

It's good when someone says, "Would you write a song for this purpose," or "would you record a song for this purpose," or "would you help me realize this song," again, for this purpose.

The music on the radio is fine, it's just not my type of music. You don't play an instrument, and you don't need to be able to sing. You just need to be able to make a beat and use auto-tune. It's crazy!