MCing Quotes

Rhyme is cool again. It's because of hip-hop. Bless you, hip-hop.

Since I was a kid, I was listening to hip-hop.

I love rapping. I do. My styling's similar to Missy Elliott - I think she's so dope. In a weird way, that's how I first learned the American accent: doing American rap songs.

A lot of times, when people say hip-hop, they don't know what they're talking about. They just think of the rappers. When you talk about hip-hop, you're talking about the whole culture and movement. You have to take the whole culture for what it is.

The vibe on 'Starboy' comes from that hip-hop culture of braggadocio, from Wu-Tang and 50 Cent, the kind of music I listened to as a kid.

Oh, hip hop is always changing.

I knew I wanted to be a rapper when I was, like, 5.

I'll tell a young kid in a minute, 'If you don't know how to read, then what good is trying to be an MC?' Like, you can MC, but if you're not trying to be a better person, learn and apply that to your MCing, then how far do you think you're really going to go?

I'm an urban act.

I don't think rap really fits in to 'American Idol' in the sense that I believe rap is an art form in itself more akin to poetry, more akin to drama, if you will.

I learned to MC over drum 'n' bass music.

I never knew anything about rapping.

There was no hip-hop before Afrika Bambaataa.

Hip-hop was fast, originally. It was always fast music.

Rap - it's a childhood passion. Writing rhymes, it's something that I was doing before rap records even existed. And I will continue to write until I can't write anymore.

Rap is very competitive. I just think I'm light years better than anybody.

Hip-hop was started on groups.

Hip-hop is a worldwide culture. We have permeated every urban environment.

Hip hop is the new rock n' roll, you know what I mean? And anybody who doesn't think that is just sort of living in the past. It's all just American music, really, when you get right down to it.

Rap is only one end of a whole spectrum of verbal play and virtuosity. Rap is geared for aural pleasure.

I'm a b-boy for life. I'm a dancer, I started with free style dancing and b-boying during the '80s and I always said to myself that when I get the chance to do my own thing, I will always have the b-boy element and the dance element because that's where I come from.

I would have to be traditional and say that my favorite era of hip-hop was between '85-'89. That was the era that got me to love hip-hop.

Hip-hop, at its best, is disruptive.

Ever since I was a kid I've been rapping.

I'm not completely at ease at rapping, I can't do it well yet.