Silkk on style:
"I ain't got no style. Whatever the beat demands of me, then I do it."
Ice-T on self esteem:
"My attitude is, if you ain't impressed by now, I don't know what can do to impress you. You want me to stand on my head and gargle peanut butter? What the f*** you want me to do?"
Redman on finding yourself:
"I'm still finding out who I am. I found the first half, and when I get the whole circumference, I'm-a be dangerous. It's gonna be some shit in this world."
Puffy on death:
"If somebody wants to get your ass, you're gonna wake up in heaven. There ain't no
record gonna be made about it. It ain't gonna be no interviews; it's gonna be straight-up `Oh shit,
where am I? What are these wings on my back? Your name is Jesus Christ?' When you're involved in some real shit, it's gonna be some real shit."
Capone on the softer side of crime:
"I don't wanna go out like the mobster Al Capone, I like how he operated. If he was alive today, he would probably appreciate
our song "Blood Money," because it talks about getting paid any way a brotha can. He was a criminal, but he had a lot of strong
qualities, and listeners gotta remember the fact that I can get wit
his positive side without following the negative. He was a leader
and an organizer. Illegal Life talks about things that could have
happened during Capone's rule."
Master P on fear:
"Whoever wanna get the gloves--I don't care if you the president of the company or you clean up the office--if you feel you wanna get in it, then that's how we do. It take all the fear away. When you don't have no fear, you can be a better person in life."
O.D.B. (Ole' Dirty Bastard) on getting shot:
"Thank goodness for the motherfuckin' doctors. Fuck everybody else. Fuck the world. Fuck the universe."
Rakim on creativity:
"My creative process is mainly being comfortable and staying focused. I like to listen to the beat and stare at the speakers until I see something. Then I go with what the beat tells me to do. I don't sit there with a plan. I sit there and come up with a plan."
Rakim on change:
"I'm dealing with the beginning of time. The prophets of years ago might have come with Qu'rans and Bibles in their hands, but the prophets nowadays come with mikes."
U-God on travel:
"From being a one-spot-all-your-life motherfucker to smoking the world's greenest shit in Amsterdam and having them roll out the red carpet in Japan is an awakening experience."
Luther Campbell, 2 Live Crew on an artist's responsibility:
"My art is based around sex, so I constantly try to experience more different things in my life in order to be truthful about it in my art form. If you gonna coach the game, you gotta be able to play."
LL Cool J on selling out:
"Hey man, a lot of people have sold their souls. But I'm not selling my soul
for nothing."
LL on the line between videos and reality:
"Yo, B., let's be real. My wife ain't no punk. She don't want to see the next honey feeling on me. But at the same time she knows that what me and this young lady's doing is business."
LL on heroism:
"I don't know what color knight I would be. I'd say light, glistening on a horse that's full of light, and my sword is flaming with light. As I ride through the courtyard and chop heads off, they fall to the cobblestone. But the heads that I'm chopping — it has nothing to do with me chopping them personally. I just think righteousness and wisdom are going to stand the test of time."
Redman on keepin' it real:
"I talk about blunts because that's what I do. I smoke more than any goddamn body. And if I don't kick my shit for the bluntheads around the country, who's gonna do it? Who's gonna serve the hardcore niggas?"
Chuck D on power:
"There's motherfuckers out there that just can't be zoned. People try to measure power and juice by a verse, or a fucking hit record, or a fucking triple double, or playoff victory. That shit is what you call bread and circuses."
RZA on being a cottage business:
"We ain't really industrialized as far as industry standards is considered. Our way of thinking ain't industrialized."
RZA on the laws of nature as applied to Wu-Tang:
"Everything follows law and order. The Earth is 93 million miles away from the Sun. If it was any closer, it'd burn. Each planet (or each member) got their direct distance from each other. If it was any closer, the gravitational pull from each planet would bring them to collide. So everything is operating in unison, following their own sequence and shit. That's what makes up the whole solar system: Wu and crew."
Chuck D on the naysayers:
"Criticism is like sitting in someone else's crib, watching someone else's cable, drinking someone else's beer. It don't matter."
Warren G on musical goals:
"You know how when you smoking a big-ass joint, it have you feeling real laid-back? I wanna make that type of sound, to re-create those instruments but make it my own thing."
Chuck D on hype:
"We're in hype-oriented times, and hype can dictate more than the actual fact
of the matter."
Canibus on hype:
"When you find yourself nodding your head and saying yes to something you don't really believe, you're being hype-notized. You see what I'm saying, like somebody is hypnotizing you through hype-nosis, you know, just looking you in the eye and talking to you ... If you experience hype-nosis too much you contract hype-nitis...then you have to see a hype-notist."