Gus Dapperton Quotes

A lot of the hip hop artists don't write music. They write words.

When I found Freestyle Fellowship, I started getting into the construction of rap. You get better at it the more you do it; you figure out the science and the math behind it.

I'm really big into lyrics in my own songs, so I look up to Drake in that aspect.

I listen a lot to rap, and I'm inspired to take it, to use it in another way, to get the message across.

I wanted to be a poet. I fell in love with poetry around eight years old, but not through literature. Instead, it came through hip-hop lyrics and my obsession with reading liner notes. Queen Latifah's 'Black Reign' is the album that stands out the most.

My favorite artist was probably Jay-Z. He's the one who inspired me to start writing music. He's a wordsmith. He's very clever. He uses a lot of similes and metaphors. He's a beast of a rapper.

What sets 'Some Nights' apart from anything we've ever done is the hip-hop influence. Not so much the actual sound of hip-hop, but more the vibrato and the artistry that comes with it. Right now, the artists that seem to be pushing to be the greatest artists and are trying to change the world are hip-hop artists.

There's nothing I'd rather do than sort of, you know, sit at my computer and rhyme.

It was a little at a time but I broke out my Walkman and my lyric pad and started writing.

Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.

I was never just a 'fill in 16 bars on a beat' rapper. I was making real songs from the jump.

I don't have to work on it. I'm naturally a writer. The rapping and writing, they can go hand-in-hand - but rapping is an art that you have to practice and master, so I worked at it for a long time.

I'm trying to escape the shackles of a pen and a pad. I've sat in sessions with Jay-Z where he doesn't write anything down. He'll come up with the most incredible triple entendre, all in his head - it's amazing.

There's more to hip-hop than just trying to make everything rhyme, and you find out in life that everything don't rhyme. The music they're cutting is musically fantastic.

I feel like with a lot of Madlib's beats, they are made for storytelling. I feel like when I'm working on stuff with him, I can really get into the storytelling aspect mode of my flow.

Some MCs don't take the time to take a beat home or just vibe with it and just figure out, 'How do I attack this track?'

I loved writing lyrics for rap when I was in junior high. I loved studying, but somehow I wanted to be a rapper who can write and rap.

I freestyled the hook to 'Target.' I got into cadence and then it sparked the idea.

I say if you don't write your lyrics, then you can't be the best rapper alive. Not at all. You can be one of the best artists, especially in rap, you gotta write everything yourself.

Lyrically and melodically, Drake was definitely a big influence of mine.

There are not many people that I respect more than rappers. I'm a huge fan of hip hop. It's incredible, one of the most influential things to me. It takes real genius to be able to do well. It's a very deep art form.

I want to be one of the most versatile rappers in the game.

Oh man, I think Damian Lillard makes good music. He has bars.

There's a heavy hip-hop influence in my music, some trap influence, but it's always lyrical.

I always wrote poems when I was a little girl, and I loved hip hop music, and I kind of just started writing poems over beats, and that's when I started rapping.