Mahershala Ali Quotes

I like the Wu Tang Clan a lot.

I'm a huge Wu-Tang fan.

I would say old school cats like Redman and Wu-tang. My style is my style, those are just cats that I liked.

Old-school hip hop, i.e., whatever was popular when you were nineteen, is great. Everything since then is intolerable.

Working with Method Man was such an honor. I love his music even though I didn't grow up in his era.

We gotta keep our sound alive, that dark hip-hop.

I like listening to Method Man before fighting.

My dad used to be a rapper, he had a rap group. They did proper old school, boom-bap music. He had a high top and everything.

I was a huge Wu-Tang fan, along with Crucial Conflict, along with Do or Die along with Mobb Deep.

When I listen to hip-hop, I listen to Just Ice, Boogie Down Productions, Ultramagnetic MCs. I grew up in that age, and it was memorable. But I'm down with all of it. Chuck D or Danny Brown? I feel comfortable with all of them. Word up, kid! Word up, man!

Wu-Tang is looked at like the Rolling Stones of hip-hop.

My favorite on '36 Chambers' gotta be between 'Method Man' and 'Can It Be All So Simple.'

I grew up on a wide range of stuff. OutKast, they been around for over 20 years, and some of the L.A. cats like Defari, Dilated Peoples and Likwit Crew. I was always going to these shows and catching the KRS-One tennis ball, as he would throw those out, EPMD. I could go on and on.

I'm definitely inspired by old hip-hop.

Every time you sort of let go of the bar, you knew someone was there to catch you, and vice versa. And, I mean, come on. It's Method Man. It's been a dream to meet him forever.

Method Man, for him to offer me the spot as the first Jewish member of the Wu Tang Clan, you know, was an honor.

Compton rapper Kendrick Lamar sounds decades older than he is, and it's not necessarily the wear and tear that comes from a rough life; instead, his world-weariness seems to result from years of soul-searching.

Wu-Block is more street. It's just street, that's all.

I don't want people to confuse me as an MC that talk about nothing.

I grew up on Public Enemy, which had a message with great music behind it.

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.

I'm not interested in hearing yet another rapper tell me why he's the best. Why not tell a story set in a specific time and place? Create some characters, add a little bit of action and you're good to go.

The crafting of lyrics is really a task, and when it comes to street culture, I don't feel like anyone else articulates it better than me.

I wanted to write a book like a rapper would write it - I didn't want to hold back. Rappers catch a lot of slack; I'm not going to be cursing up a storm, but when I look at Nas... his first album is one of my favorites. I want to tell stories like that.

I kind of backed into rap music. I thought I was going to do comic books or graphic art.