Rakim Quotes

Dabbling in music and being in music when I was young I had my own view of what I thought music was whether it was jazz, r&b, or hip hop.

I'm not a flamboyant artist.

I kinda write in sequences that I live through.

You gotta let the fans shine their glory the way they want. It's like I have a million bosses and my job is to make them happy.

Before I started rapping and touring I weighed about 160. But by going on the road every night eating fast food, performing every night, partying and drinking I started gaining weight immediately.

When I hear my first album today I hear myself reading my rhymes but I'm my worst critic.

I don't try to go to the studio and make a single. I just do whatever I feel.

I feel that when we leave here I think it's just another transition and whatever it is I hope I'm prepared for it.

Once I finish one album I know where to begin again.

Sometimes people say yo do you think rap changed you. No doubt it changed me. If I wasn't making records I'd still be hanging every night.

Whenever I write a song I see the whole song anyway.

Sometimes I feel I'm the luckiest rapper in the world.

I always wanted to kind of make the listener feel like it was them that I was talking about, or to the point that I could say the rhyme, and feel like it's them saying it.