Lil Wayne, that was one of my main influences, music-wise, because of his wordplay and metaphors.
What inspires me about rap is that it's written in an almost poetic way. I just think it's so cool.
The hardest portion of English, I must say it: Idioms.
Stripped of its plot, the 'Iliad' is a scattering of names and biographies of ordinary soldiers: men who trip over their shields, lose their courage or miss their wives. In addition to these, there is a cast of anonymous people: the farmers, walkers, mothers, neighbours who inhabit its similes.
And, I mean, I think poetry does need to be met to some extent, especially, I guess, 19th century poetry, and for me, it's just been so worth the effort. It's like I'm planting a garden in my head.
Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.
My favorite artist was probably Jay-Z. He's the one who inspired me to start writing music. He's a wordsmith. He's very clever. He uses a lot of similes and metaphors. He's a beast of a rapper.
Shakespeare's taught me that there are more words in the English language than I have got in my head.
The fundamentals of hip-hop still play an important role, cause it's about those similes, those metaphors, those parallels. And to some people it's just about, "Man, I'm really relating to the lifestyle."
Analogies, in particular, can illuminate, but they can also obscure and confuse. They need to be handled carefully, like rhetorical high explosives.
What we feel most has no name but amber, archers, cinnamon, horses and birds.
Similes prove nothing, but yet greatly lighten and relieve the tedium of argument.
My fans have always loved my metaphors.
By using stale metaphors, similes and idioms, you save much mental effort, at the cost of leaving your meaning vague, not only for your reader but for yourself.
Metaphors are fine if they aid understanding, but sometimes they get in the way.
Oft on the dappled turf at ease I sit, and play with similes, Loose type of things through all degrees.
Rappers should sit down and construct quality lines.
If anything, there is something quite musical in Shakespeare's heightened use of language and the way he shapes his speech.
Lyricism is about painting a picture. It doesn't have to be a bunch of punchlines.
The single thing I've found it valuable to memorize is poetry.
Twittering and blogging and all that is fine, but there is no idea of how to phrase something beautifully; how to use language to create an emotion. It's just passing information and sometimes very superficial information.
My writing style is very sensual, as in sensory detail.
Lapped in poetry, wrapped in the picturesque, armed with logical sentences and inalienable words.
Once we start hitting lyrical themes that can whack you from all these different perspectives, we know we're onto something special.
I sometimes never really realize what lyrics are saying.
