Jamila Woods Quotes

I think that rap is narrative, when it's done right.

Hip-hop is not all '2 Chainz' - although '2 Chainz' is awesome. How he does that with metaphors, I don't know.

I've always been jealous of rappers, because they can fit so many words into a song and tell a story with lots of details. But when you're a songwriter, you have to fit the words to the melody and you can't fit as much in. I'm just a big fan of storytelling.

Not everybody is a great rapper; not everybody lives for the art of lyricism.

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

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

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

I think hip-hop does a very good job of infusing comedy and humor and wit into music, a lot more than other genres.

Usually, when I'm rappin', I'm creating a big story or a concept song that sounds like a movie to me.

When you're looking for good lyrics, you turn to Kendrick Lamar, you turn to J Cole, you turn to Wale, you turn to Chance the Rapper, you turn to Rapsody. You don't turn to Post Malone.

What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.

Biggie was to me the guy who was the best at painting the picture and making you visualize something, Pac was the best poet, and I feel like Jay Z is all of the above. Then Rick Ross is just, every line he spits is just perfect, and he's one of my favorite MCs of all time.

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

I still to this day get the most inspiration from rap lyrics.

If you're really a rapper, you can't stop rapping.

I write poetry, and I put it to a beat - I mean, that's what they call rap.

But I've been freestyling and messing around with rhyming since I was 13. That's when I really started listening to hip-hop music.

When I rap, I get to express myself in a way where putting words together is like poetry, and sometimes it's better to talk in certain expressions than sing, you know? So I love, I love to rhyme when I want to express certain things.

I think rap music is rap music. I mean, are there heavy writing aspects of it? Absolutely. In a sense, is it poetry? Yeah. I've heard that so much, growing up in a house with poetry. But I think people like to use that as a shortcut for who's good and who's not. It's like the word 'lyrical' - 'lyrical' is the worst word in the entire world.

Big Rube was on my first album and some of my mixtapes. His words are so powerful. I want to speak every word he says into existence. I wanna be a part of that! I wanna be a part of greatness. His wordplay is great to me.

Drake, I'd like to collaborate with. He's a phenomenal lyricist. Probably the best rapper in the world at the moment. I love Kanye but there's something about Drake; he's more straight up, really clever and really poetic and metaphorical - I love that. He's just clever.

A lot of underground hip-hop will inspire me as far as rhyme patterns - really wordy, intelligent lyrics.

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.

It just happens to be that people like to associate poetry and rap music. I think that idea is kind of corny.

The MC that we love are usually the ones that we consider be kinda heartless, like 50 Cent. That's pretty much the prowess and power of an MC. That's what sells.