Rakim Quotes

A peculiar work in any art must not be too hastily judged. New styles have to create new tastes.

I'm terribly afraid of failure. When your identity is wrapped up in writing and you've written something that doesn't work, it's a tough pill to swallow.

My mother, grandmother and I all have different styles, but we share the same taste.

I don't need anyone to write me a show in my style, I would like to do a show in a style that wasn't my style, because that's the only way I can grow up and grow out.

As an artist, I have been a risk-taker. And I've done a lot of different things. I don't make it easy for people. Identification is difficult. One doesn't recognize my art right away.

I liked experimenting with a lot of different styles. So, it always saddens me when I see young people, or even older people for that matter, who are limited to one specific type of music. They don't really allow themselves to experience so many types of music out there that are so wonderful to listen to. And there's good parts and bad parts, I guess, to all of them.

I think my style is very eclectic, because I love so many different things. And, that's true, too, in almost every aspect of my life. I can go from really edgy to tailored and professional, and I just love to change things up.

You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.

Well, I suppose I could do a solo album, but my god, it would be terrible!

Sometimes I sit and look at life from a different angle.

I really have no preference between TV and film. I think that each individual project is its own thing and has a very different style. I have worked on big movies and small movies and network TV. I have had amazing experiences in each environment, and awful ones - more good than bad, though.

When you are playing with someone who really has something to say, even though they may be otherwise quite different in style, there’s one thing that remains constant. And that is the tension of the experience, that electricity, that kind of feeling that is a lift sort of feeling. No matter where it happens, you know when that feeling comes upon you, and it makes you feel happy.

... what I fear in writing is the safe decision.

The different styles I have been using in my art must not be seen as an evolution, or as steps towards an unknown ideal of painting. Everything I have ever made was made for the present and with the hope that it would always remain in the present.

For me, something dangerous would be playing thebabe in a huge studio film. That would be terrifying because I'dstink... I want to explore human beings on as deep a level as I can.

I have my own style, but it's different for each kind of music. There are certain little characteristic things every player has.

I'm lucky that I've worked with so many different directors with very different styles and with a lot of different actors.

The word "elegance" is a bit different now.

Different genres allow me to not feel so hemmed in by my own voice, tics, style.

Every movie that I do, I always try and better myself in the next one and try and find a part which is more challenging. It's a little vulnerable to do that, to always push the envelope. You position yourself for a lot more flack or a lot more critique because you're trying to do something different. Sometimes you're good at it and sometimes you're not, but it's a chance you have to take to make life exciting.

Nowadays everyone's got the nose rings and the colored hair, so for me to wear the suit and tie is a different way to go.

Everybody learns differently and everybody gets to a certain point from a different direction.

I've always had my own style, I've always been different. I don't like to wear anything that anyone else is wearing because it's very important for me to make a statement.

I am thoroughly tired of the fable style of narrative and shall do my best to get up something entirely different and possibly little more worthy.

I never wanted to be in a band because I love music too much to mess it up.