The artists with lyrical content and who say something seem to outlast the fad rappers - I always noticed that.
When you get to the 35-year mark in your career, you make albums for your fans to love you more, so they don't forget about you.
If you're 30, 40 years old, you're not getting listened to by minors. Like, Jay Z has some of the sickest lyrics ever, but I would never buy his CD, just because of my age and because of his age.
Don't nobody listen to Nas anymore.
When people don't hear you on the radio they think 'maybe he retired.'
Like, Jay Z has some of the sickest lyrics ever, but I would never buy his CD, just because of my age and because of his age. By the time I turn that old, I ain't gonna be doing what he's doing.
I don't get played on radio anymore. Once you're over 40, forget it.
You leave a country, they stop playing you on the radio.
For artists of my caliber, we're not played on the radio, so we don't really get a chance to get involved in that debate at all. We don't get a chance, because this weird kind of ageism exists in pop music. If you're past a certain age, you're not relevant. That's the kind of cliched term.
If the Rolling Stones are playing a concert across town, that's not my audience anyways. But I do find that there's a lot of people coming back around to see me again.
Getting a record deal is a meaningless thing now.
Any artist who sticks around in the public awareness for more than 20 years usually has something unique to say.
You also said in Rolling Stone that your look is based on mine. The look I chose, I chose on purpose at a time when my record company were encouraging me to do what you have done. I felt I would rather be judged on my talent and not my looks. I am happy that I made that choice, not least because I do not find myself on the proverbial rag heap now that I am almost 47 yrs of age.. which unfortunately many female artists who have based their image around their sexuality, end up on when they reach middle age.
I'm kind of a firm believer that songs can have a shelf life with an artist.
If people stop being interested, it's because you haven't written a good enough album. Music will always be the most powerful thing. It doesn't matter what record labels or journalists say. It's the song.
Every artist wants to feel like they're still valid in a contemporary way. But you can't be so arrogant not to think that people who have thrown down their hard-earned money don't want to see and hear the things they want.
I remember music first artists second.
Take Damien Hirst out of contemporary art history, and there's an incredible void. Great artists, like great people, have second acts.
Nobody went out to pasture, and a lot of people are doing their best work. Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, and Sting are at the top of their game. I mean, Tony Bennett is the coolest guy I ever met! We have to figure out how to break out of this age ghetto.
It's nearly redundant to enumerate the reasons The Beatles are important. There are probably different reasons why The Beatles are important to a musician like myself and to the millions of Beatles fans who just enjoy listening to the music.
People in the record business would say, Well, Pras, you know, you haven't been out in a while, maybe you should get today's hottest producer or rapper to do something.
Kids bring their mothers and grandmothers to our concerts. You don't see that with a lot of artists today.
Most artists over 40 or 50 don't get played on the radio. It's a young people's game. I was ready for that.
My friend Fred Coury, the drummer in '80s rock band Cinderella, told me that in the rock world, you're either still there, or you're struggling to get back to where you were.
A lot of artists come into the game with a radio record, but they don't establish the fans as fans of their style of music. It's just that they're a fan of that song, and after that song plays out, it's real hard for 'em.
