Rakim Quotes

I told the record company I didn't feel the need to be at red-carpet events. I wanted a career. But I wanted to keep myself intact as a person.

There's more well-known artists who aren't making as good songs as people who are just coming out of nowhere. That seems to be more typical in the last few years than ever.

My ultimate goal is to really be a huge music artist to the point where one day people forget that I was on a reality show.

Movie stars need to retain some of that mystique if you are a big movie star.

I look at being an actress as being like a mummy: You're bandaged up and preserved as soon as you start making other people money.

I'm not particularly good at 'celebrity'; I don't think it was something I was born to do. I think I can get by as an actor, but I've never been one for the red carpet and don't put a lot of stock in celebrities that are famous for being famous.

I really hate the duties of being a celebrity, like getting dressed up for the red carpet.

I won't lie - when you're first bringing out music and you want people to notice, you probably overdo it, especially as a girl.

I don't mind doing the whole red carpet thing when I have to when it comes to publicizing a movie. But besides that, I don't like those kinds of things at all. Celebrity status is not really something that appeals to me.

And I'm not a personality; otherwise I'd be coming out with an album, performing on MTV. All that stuff is possible and I can do that tomorrow. I just have no need.

As a new artist, you come out, and there are so many other new artists. It seems like there's a whole wave of new artists that come along every year. In '05, I was part of the crop. It was a lot harder trying to set myself apart from the rest of the pack.

I understand acting and I understand actors. I don't really understand the world of celebrity. That's just bizarre. Those sorts of elements I'm at sea with.

I'm not a pop star.

I don't wanna abandon my identity as LL Cool J, but at the same time, I had to figure out how to let people know that I'm really serious about making these movies.

I'm not just a rapper. I'm an entertainer. That's the difference.

Obama was 200 percent advertising. I promote myself to sell my brands. Because now I am a kind of celeb. I am in a different world than the fashion industry. I am with Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Madonna. I build me as a celebrity.

I don't consider myself a starlet or a Hollywood person.

Actors play different characters, so you have to build a new base around each new movie - with few exceptions, most actors don't have a fan base that just follows them around. With musicians, the fan base just goes everywhere they go.

I'm like the male Taylor Swift.

You know how country music stars get an extra 10 years on their life when they go to Branson? Like you're washed up, and you go to Branson, then you can last another 10 years. That's what bashing the media does.

My dream job growing up was always to be an artist. It wasn't even that I would be a rapper or singer; I just knew I would be a public figure.

I hear some new artists that sound country but the record labels and country radio lean more toward a more rock feel for what gets signed to a label and played on the radio.

I like the fact that I have two names because I find that in this industry you have to have dual personalities especially being a transitional entertainer, being an actor going into music. It's not that I'm pretending to be somebody else but it's just that the people that I act with, the Directors, Producers and Agents, can't really relate to what I talk about.

I'm not an industry artist - I'm an artist in the industry.

I like getting my own thoughts out right now, I have fans to solidify, so that's why I don't do tracks with too many younger rappers or newer artists. People may consider me to be a music snob or whatever, but I like to preserve what's mine and I also don't just do tracks to do tracks, I make every song with a purpose.