Raekwon Quotes

Anytime I shoot a video, I just think of anything I can do to set myself apart from everybody in the music industry.

We all do 'do, re, mi,' but you have got to find the other notes yourself.

David Lee Roth had the idea that if you covered a successful song, you were half way home. C'mon - Van Halen doing 'Dancing in the Streets'? It was stupid. I started feeling like I would rather bomb playing my own songs than be successful playing someone else's music.

Make your own music. It can be done.

I think most of the best new work is intended to have much more impact at once.

When we started Aventura, I think a lot of - the reason why we became so successful besides, you know, doing good music, was also the fact that it was unique and different and never done.

Whenever I sing, I try to make it different, the sound that you've never heard before, and put something new, which people love.

I've learned that if you don't have anyone opposing your work, if you don't have anyone thinking, 'Man, that should be me. I could do that. I should have thought of that, or they must have teams of people doing it for them,' your work simply isn't reaching enough people to be relevant.

I always wanted to create my own musical world. That takes time and must be earned, and it does mean sometimes confronting the expectations of the audience.

We didn't want to just be a cover group, we wanted to do our music, to be a band. Once we were able to do it, it was a little scary, but it was also something inspiring - something new, fresh for us to get into. It was amazing to see the reaction of our fans.

We're not the first people to climb up something or do a backflip during a set, but we want to do something that gets people's attention.

I think if I lost an edge, or the music didn't have the aggression or whatever, which is maybe one of the hallmarks of what I do, if indeed it is, I still think if you have something original in what you do and you keep doing that, then you're all right.

Eventually you'll take the phrases and rhythm patterns you've copped and begin to put your own mark on them

Since age seven, I've been composing and have never stopped composing, yet, the creative process is as elusive to me as it has ever been.

I know when somebody's heard my music. I can hear it in their music.

I'm dead serious about my craft and just really serious about making music in itself. I take pride in making songs and albums where no two songs sound alike. That's the challenge and that's what it's all about, to keep it original and fresh and funky.

If one uses music that one does not really love, then one will not succeed in making it one's own.

You don't base records on success; you base it on creativity.

It's clever, but is it Art?

I'm not trying to become a pop artist, and I'm not trying to make sure I stay a country artist. I'm just trying to make sure I make the best music I can, according to my way.

Music. It's all creativity right here, right now.

People ask what was the first piece of music I wrote. There was no first piece.

I mean, there are only so many notes. What makes something original is how you put it together.

Rock music is predictable, unless there's great talent involved.

A lot of producers and creative types want to see you be you. Throw something else out there and show them where you would take this part. A lot of them are launching shows for the first time, so they've got a lot riding on this, too, and they want you to be their flight.