Rakim Quotes

It took me three albums to get the confidence and to find out what I could do that made me different from other people. And the first record, really, was a process of trying.

People always want to talk about who I was, but I've always been singing, always been experimenting with pop music.

In life we try to grow and better ourselves. As an artist, I feel like I've grown tremendously.

I've been making music for a long time, since I was very young, but at the same time, I'm still exploring what works for me. I feel like I'm just starting out.

I needed to explore my talent and versatility and see if I had another side to me, another sound.

For me, making music is a continuous learning experience, and I think that it feeds itself.

It wasn't until Duotones that I felt my true voice come out.

I know who I am as an artist and I know what my sound is, but I wanted to know what I could do in order to take it to that next level. So the experiences I had last year of moving to California and traveling to places like Rome and Nicaragua where I met a lot of people just had a really big impact in my life.

I play piano and guitar and I do write my own stuff so to a certain extent I know what I want to do in regards to music. But I'm still finding out what kind of music is my favourite kind to listen to, never mind do myself so I've got a lot of time to find out myself and develop myself as an artist.

My biggest challenge was to make sure that the songs I did were who I am.

I'm kind of still learning my voice and learning my style.

Yeah, I put out some goofy stuff. I had no idea who I was as an artist at all before 'Posse on Broadway.'

I feel like I wasn't making music that meant anything to me until I was 26 years old, so I'm realizing that sometimes it takes three years or five years to understand what the point of even making music together is.

As someone whose music is connected to his personal growth, I feel an obligation to follow this muse wherever it leads.

It took me a long time to find my own voice, even after I started making my own music.

I feel like, for me as an artist, it takes me a while of living with the tracks and living with the body of work to realize what it's all about.

At first you're doing it for yourself, it's about what sounds good to you. It's about expressing yourself. Then you get comfortable as an artist and you find yourself and people get familiar.

Albums are like diaries. You go through phases, technically and emotionally, and they reflect the state that you're in at the time.

I think I have allowed my voice to experiment with the different genres. And I think that I have just really enjoyed the journey of getting to know my voice and seeing what it's capable of, what it's not capable of.

I think all any artist or person wants to do is grow spiritually, emotionally, professionally and mentally.

When I turned 19 I kinda realized that I needed to write my own songs instead of singing songs written by other people.

It is not about writing those hits again. I am sure I could write them, but it is about the sensibilities.

My style is constantly evolving. Style has been something that I think has been the hardest thing for me to come to terms with.

We started Yes as a vehicle to develop everyone's individual styles.

At the end of the day I want to be the guy who experienced music in all type of ways, with hip-hop being the roots of it.