DJ Quik quotes:

Now it seems like there is no culture. The school of fish are all separate. Everybody's just randomized, listening to their own thing in their earbuds. That's going to be the downfall of music, if anything. Nobody enjoys one thing anymore.

Sometimes it's hard to listen to new music and get motivated, because it's elementary to me - no disrespect to new artists, because that's where we started, too. But it's like they're way back there in first grade, and I'm in college.

My forte is the music. But obviously if ya don't keep up with the business, then your kinda doing it for nothing. So I do plan on being well off doing, maximizing what I do now. I heard Jimmy Kimmel describe being in your thirties in hip-hop is like the equivalent to being 300 yrs. old; almost like a dinosaur.

I'm 14 years in the game, ... There's some kids that weren't even born when my first album came out. I wanted to draw a timeline between my old stuff and my new stuff and bridge it to where there's a level of continuity.

Me like to smoke the bud but my eyes they get all red, my senses get dull and me forget what i said, me find my joint now and me want to take a toke, let take a long hit, hold the smoke untill me choke!

Nowadays you can't tell, watch the crotch, it may swell.

The motivation sometimes comes when you least expect it. I try to keep an open mind.

I don't think you should ever give up on trying to push the bar a little bit higher.

The parties happen when we book the studio. That's a safe place. Get alcohol, food, girls, homies, and have these small listening parties while I'm recording. And that energy always gets into the music.

To be able to impress, you have to get to this middle ground where you're not too advanced so it goes over people's heads, and you're not too minimalist where people think you're just trying to rob the game and not stretch out.

You never want to look like an old fart doing young rap music.

I used to throw mad parties because I had all this damn money! Some of them got out of hand. People wanted to fight, steal necklaces off of people's necks. A little weird. I had to have armed security at my house. I was young, 21, 22.

I feel like if I'm not going to change the game or do something innovative, then I'm not motivated.

I bet Eazy E is turning over in his grave, to see that some of ya'll done made gangsta rap gay

As a matter of fact it wasn't until after BIG passed and stupid rumors went around that I had something to do with it, and it's like I'm not a killer man , I'm a musician, I'm a DJ we got like a different heart. Ya know back then when rappin' was fun, and we could immolate being gangstas; ya know Dr. Dre made the hardest gangsta rap records in the world, that didn't necessarily make him a gangsta. It was all like ya know : character, we were all in character.

You can't hate somebody for the rest of their lives over one mistake.

The key to success is to be easy to work with.

Fandango was around before the Internet. Fandango is a Spanish-American dance. It's a lively tempo dance. It's almost like the tango. That's what it says in the Merriam-Webster [dictionary]. The second entry is [defined as] 'tomfoolery.' That's what it says in the dictionary, that's what I go by. I remember Queen saying it too on 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' When I was little I never understood what they meant by 'do the fandango.

How did we lose our culture? Black people used to all do the same thing on Saturdays. We all watched "Soul Train" and "American Bandstand", got our fashion and dance tips, and then we emulated it and bought those records that we heard. Now it seems like there is no culture. The school of fish are all separate. Everybody's just randomized, listening to their own thing in their earbuds, and there's no uniformity. That bothers me.

I still want to be an architect and score films and do other things. I always said as long as I've still got teeth and hair and I look cool when I look in the mirror, then I'll do it.

I look down and see little kids in the audience and I'm like, "Oh man, I hope I'm not poisoning these kids!"