Kanye West Quotes

Music bears a great responsibility because it is so influential. Everybody listens to music. It is a very influential tool. To me, it is very important to the world... music is... to being... to life.

I feel like the D.C. streets just love Gucci Mane. He's like a hood pastor.

To its credit, hip-hop is my favorite genre, to this day, and it's hard not to be influenced by the culture and by the movement of it and by the soul of it.

Hip hop was definitely, far and away, the primary influence for at least 10 years of my life. From about 7 or 8 on till about 15 or 16, that's all I listened to.

Everything I listen to is influential in some way.

I actually grew up break-dancing. When you break-dance you listen to hip-hop and rap, so I've been listening to that music since I was a kid.

Hip-hop music was our life.

Rappers are definitely role models and definitely should get involved. They're involved in politics whether they like it or not.

I think Ye is important to hip-hop.

R&B is everywhere, and I am who I am.

I think a lot of people can learn from listening to hip hop. It ain't always about beats and rhymes.

If anybody can make a change it's the rappers.

I grew up on Hip Hop, it's the music I love and it's the music I respect. I respect the culture...that's me.

Every generation has to find their own heroes.

Hip-hop was super-exotic to us in Canada.

I'm gonna try and change the course of hip hop again.

I wanted to appeal to people who've never really listened to hip-hop or really given it a chance before. I've also tried to incorporate all my favorite lifestyle things in the music. Of course, 'Fashion Killa' is one of peoples' favorites because it just expresses how much I like fashion.

I still very much appreciate the storytelling of the best rappers.

November is Hip-Hop History Month, where we give celebration to what hip hop has done to bring together people of the world, people of all nationalities, young people, all the political systems and politicians on the planet.

Eminem is more like a friend. And I'm also a fan on Eminem.

I like Jay-Z. I love Luda. I love Ledisi. I like Beyonce, of course. I think she's just brilliant. She's a triple threat. But my favorite - my all-time rapper is Tupac. See, I could have been Tupac's girlfriend.

Advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century.

Will Smith is young, he's cool and my kids have his CDs.

People need heroes, in music and every aspect of life.

Nicki Minaj thanked me on the first mixtape that she put out. She shouted me out, said thank you for allowing her to borrow my English accent sometimes. And honestly, a lot of people have told me that I've influenced them.