Chamillionaire Quotes

Mixtapes have always been a guerrilla-style means of moving music.

I was probably like 13 years old, 14. And I used to walk home doing the beatbox from school. That's how I created it. There was no walkmans back then, no iPods, no CDs. There was just me. Back then there was the boom box.

'Boyz-n-the-Hood' was actually supposed to be written for Eazy's group. He had a group out in New York called Home Boys Only, called HBO. One of them looked like LL Cool J. Eazy wanted to write a song for them, a street song, like what we were doing on the mix tapes. So when I wrote it, it was too West Coast for them.

Mixtapes are always small scale to me - they never get taken seriously, and they're always short-lived.

Two records put me over the top with hip-hop. One of them was 'Planet Rock,' and the other had no lyrics - it was called 'Numbers,' from a group called Kraftwerk. Every kid in the 'hood in New York and New Jersey was popping, locking, and breaking to that record. It was the hottest track on the street at the time.

I got Sonny up to Harlem, and we started street playin' in New York. We did that for three or four years and survived. We brought it back to the streets again.

It was a really interesting time in New York in the late 70s and early 80s, and the music scene was really, really interesting because you didn't have to be a virtuoso to make music, it was more about your desire to express things.

There's this other girl called Lykke Li from Sweden - I really want to collaborate with her, that'd be great. Obviously Kanye West as well, and Drake would be pretty amazing.

There are certainly some artists in New York that I would love to work with. One is Sarah Michelson.

The roots of my music start from the ghetto.

When I first heard rap, I wasn't quick to be critical. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I had a feeling it was a reflection of what's been happening in the ghetto.

I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they're both subcorporate music - I mean, traditionally.

I just want to put my stamp on all kinds of music. Everything I do is going to be gangsta rap, street-based, street-oriented.

You've got these guys that have this fresh, street, hip-hop country that sells a zillion. Keep doing that. I'll keep doing my stuff. We'll see how it goes.

I enjoy independent music, even more than Bollywood.

Diane Cluck is part of the anti-folk movement in New York. She's got a really haunting voice, and she usually sings in the pentatonic scale.

My core thing is gangster rap, but a lot of my music is melodic and carries a message of survival.

Busta Rhymes, I have to give him credit for one thing: he always lays the red carpet out for me when I'm in New York.

If you look at the story of 'The Get Down,' it's the story of young people, unknowns thrown together by their resources, trying to create something.

Everything I do is in a New York state of mind. I'm indebted to preserving the sound of the city.

'Strong Island' is slang for Long Island, New York. And it really grew out of - what may surprise people, it really grew out of the very vibrant hip-hop scene that, you know, is located and still generates artists out of Long Island.

I'm still going to sing these songs because trap is a type of music very popular in the streets, and people want to hear it.

It's mad to think I was just a kid from south London, rapping in parks with friends.

Now it seems like hip hop belongs to the people you see in the videos and radios. So I want to give it bring it back to the hood, make a statement for NY to put us back in our proper perspective, and of course let them know that Ra still spits fire.

I grew up in the Bronx. I'm into rap music.