Nas quotes:

+1
Share
Pin
Like
Send
Share
  • Calling Michelle 'Obama Barack's baby mama?' Tell me, is that acceptable? But the Obamas aren't the only targets. Fox's pattern of race-baiting and fear-mongering regularly focuses on black leaders, black institutions and ordinary black people.

  • When you're a teenager, you want to meet a lot of girls - you want to get the most girls. You don't know anything about respect; you don't know anything about being faithful and loyal to your girlfriend.

  • I'm not talking about Russia in my music. I've never been to Russia. I'm not talking about Africa, Switzerland, China. I'm talking about me being American and growing up in a crazy world and helping to reflect all different sides of life.

  • The things that I have said when I was young and curious about whatever the subject matter was, I respect those - those are growing pains. Even if you make mistakes, I go back to those things, my not-so-great moments because those are my truest moments; those are my human moments. I'm not even mad at the things I said that were a little dicey.

  • Stillmatic' is the rebirth of 'Illmatic,' my first debut album to come out in 1994. 'Stillmatic' is me coming full circle in my career and with everything, and just bringing pure hip-hop back.

  • Life Is Good' represents the most beautiful, dramatic and heavy moments in my life.

  • You can't please everybody. You'd be crazy if you're trying to. So take some time out to do some things for yourself.

  • With age comes common sense and wisdom.

  • I don't get jealousy, I don't get how people hate each other - I never did.

  • I love PBS! I grew up on it. If I had to say which channels were good, I'd say, you got your PBS, your History Channel, your Discovery.

  • I think if I heard someone else talking about their life, describing all the problems I've had, they'd look like they were through. Done. But there's something about me - I'm smiling. Those things are really not bad enough to put me in a slump. I'm smiling with the opportunity to wake up every morning.

  • I wish the music business was a much easier thing, but you know what? Nothing easy is worth anything. So it is what it is. There comes a time when things can work out and everybody can be happy. And that's what it's all about in the end - everybody being happy and working it out.

  • Man, me and Biggie were the biggest artists in New York. When he passed, I was so messed up. My attitude was messed up about him dying. There was an East-West thing back then, and I was in war mode.

  • I love the art world, I love art galleries, I love what it means - I love art.

  • Divorce can be crazy. Man, if you're happy... Love is a beast, man. Hold on. Be prepared for any way it may go, and be honest.

  • Hip-hop is really standoffish. It's really competitive and it's really about who's number one all the time. Sometimes it gets out of hand.

  • I'll always love rap, no matter what's going on.

  • N.Y. hip-hop is ok, but we gotta become brave again; we have to be brave enough and do something new - that's what New York is about... New.

  • You ni**az get me sick, wannabe soundin like you know my arithmetic... but we don't sound alike

  • I definitely have plans to do more collaboration albums in the future. I'm a big fan of Common. I'm a big fan of Scarface; I'm a big fan of so many people, from Jeezy to... well, there are a lot of people's music that I respect. I don't know who I will collaborate with, but there's a great chance of something happening.

  • All fatherhood is very important because single mothers shouldn't have to raise sons or daughters; they need that help.

  • I don't go out unless I'm working. My quality time is when I'm doing nothing.

  • You know, rap is sort of like a form of talking, right? So it's like you can hear, you know, the slaves doing it. You can hear, like, you know, Africans and Jamaicans doing it just kind of as, like, a rhythmic, poetic conversation, you know, to a rhythm.

  • Africa has been going through so much for so many years; it's time that it stands up the way other nations are standing up.

  • I talk about life, and I make universal music with an American style - and that's what I do.

  • I had a pretty public divorce. They're not easy - divorces - and it took me a long time to really get through.

  • DJs play a big responsibility of what hip-hop is doing... At the end of the day, it's up to us to control and to own hip-hop. DJs need to challenge us rappers. They got so much power, they need to challenge us.

  • I think the fact that I made enough noise in the world that I might be remembered is an amazing achievement. You can't ask for more than that.

  • I have no tattoos that I regret - I have had some that I have had changed according to how my life was.

  • I want to sound like an instrument. I want my voice and my words to marry the beat. I go with the rhythm of it and the words start to come to my mind and those words could be based on things that's been on my mind for the past year, the past month, the past week, whatever; I write it.

  • Every generation witnesses atrocities. People in power try to fulfill prophecy.

  • I'm the young city bandit, hold myself down singlehanded For murder raps, I kick my thoughts alone, get remanded Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne I'm deep by sound alone, caved inside in a thousand miles from home

  • Everything will eventually come to an end, So try to savor the moment, cause time flies, don't it? The beauty of life, you gotta make it last for the better, Cause nothin' lasts forever.

  • I broke into shakespeare's tomb and stole his remains, grinded the bones, smoked it, then got in the game

  • I'm capable of anything, my imagination can give me wings

  • You lose money chasing women; Never lose women chasing money.

  • I sip the Dom P watching Gandhi til I'm charged - writing in my book of rhymes, all the words past the margin

  • Don't ever give up on yourself. Keep pushing because the change of guards is what life's all about. You've always got to stick with whatever you're into because you're day is going to come. You're day is destined. If you walk away from that, whether it be from fear or whether you're just giving up. The greatest sin is fear and giving up.

  • You know the block was ill as a youngster Every night it was like a, cop would get killed body found in the dumpster

  • And the stuff that I write, is even tougher than dykes

  • Failure is not an option, and I always felt like I'm a man who doesn't have regrets, and I don't live with excuses. I can't take excuses.

  • Respect all fear none my pride is everything

  • If the truth is told, the youth can grow Then learn to survive until they gain control Nobody says you have to be gangstas, hoes Read more learn more, change the globe

  • Hip hop started in NY so it's important that New Yorkers realise that to talk about NY music and its sound should not be a small-minded conversation. Music is supposed to evolve. It's supposed to be going through changes, it's not supposed to sound exactly the same as what it did when it started. NY hip hop has to be allowed to move on and grow and expand.

  • You got a handful of great guys - Ne-Yo, R. Kelly, Usher. You have a handful of great female artists. But for the most part the music world's changing and change is good. You have to make adjustments if you want to survive in that world.

  • My success symbolizes loyalty, great friends, Dedication, hard work, routine builds character. In a world full of snakes, rats and scavengers

  • I talk about Africa and its meaning, being the birthplace of man and all that great history that's been erased and even hidden. I think it's my duty to be proud and to bring about the conversation that allows us to talk about the great history of my people.

  • Every great person educates themselves.

  • I'm a firm believer that we all meet up in eternity, Just hope the Big Man show me some courtesy

  • Hip-hop artist, especially the older ones, are the ones who new hip-hop was a worldwide phenomenon before the mainstream caught on, so hip-hop artists are forward thinkers. We want to stay with the new.

  • Jamaican music can be aggressive, soulful, smooth and exciting all at once - just like hip-hop. At the same time, there's nothing like Jamaica in the United States. Jamaica is its own thing.

  • True in the game, as long as blood is blue in my veins I pour my Heineken brew to my deceased crew on memory lane

  • All I need is one mic . All I need is one life, one try, one breath, I'm one man.

  • All I need is one mic One beat, one stage One ni%$a frontin' my face on the front page Only if I had one gun, one girl and one crib One god to show me how to do things his son did.

  • There needs to be structures in place to do something about misrepresentation about hip hop. When awards are given out and the media talk about hip hop, they're confused because they haven't done their homework on it so you have a case where there's an award for the most pop song in the world and it's called 'hip hop'.

  • Anything that's really good, everybody wants to put their hands on. The multimedia puts their hands on it and everything happens that makes it global. Then people forget the roots of it and people forget why they care about it, and then it gets torn apart and turns so commercial that you don't even know what the essence of this art form is even about.

  • I know you think my life is good 'cause my diamond piece, But my life been good since I started finding peace.

  • I never sleep, cause sleep is the cousin of death.

  • In hip hop no one cares. No one stands up for it and it's a mess. We need order so we can all follow the tradition of where we came from. We need to keep referring to the pioneers.

  • I've met a lot of people and happened to inspire a lot of people who I'm in conversation with about business. It's just how things are going for me and it's great, but music is always going to be number one for me.

  • It's a thin line between paper and hate, Friends and snakes, nine millis and thirty-eights, Hell or the pearly gates...I was destined to come, Predicted, blame God, He blew breath in my lungs.

  • My earliest memories of rap music was mixed with my earliest memories of reggae music. They were big sounds around the way, heavy bass lines, strong messages, definitely.

  • Big up to Flex. Stop taking so much cizock in his mizouth.

  • I'm a storyteller and the Bible is a bunch of stories about life and things that took place here on planet earth. It's a great example to use and a great reason to be happy about being a storyteller because the lessons of the land are always in stories.

  • You a slave to a page in my rhyme book.

  • I think marriage is a beautiful thing. I'm still a supporter of it.

  • Don't speak to fools, they scorn the wisdom of your words.

  • Street's disciple, my raps are trifle. I shoot slugs from my brain just like a rifle.

  • Mind's in another world thinking how can we exist through the facts

  • Your look reflects what's happening in your mind. You gotta have some swag to you.

  • Through the lights cameras and action, glamour glitters and gold I unfold the scroll, plant seeds to stampede the globe...

  • Hip-hop is the streets. Hip-hop is a couple of elements that it comes from back in the days... that feel of music with urgency that speaks to you. It speaks to your livelihood and it's not compromised. It's blunt. It's raw, straight off the street - from the beat to the voice to the words.

  • Big L scared me to death. When I heard that on tape, I was scared to death. I was like there's no way I can compete if this is what I gotta compete with.

  • No one's promised anything. You could have the biggest record on radio and sell no records.

  • Some seek fame cause they need validation, Some say hating is confused admiration.

  • The reason I want to be alone, is I'm tired of all the things that went wrong that would've went right if I had did 'em on my own

  • Once you make it to your point of making it, you'll appreciate the struggle.

  • I never stood for any president in my life, never voted, before Barack Obama. It changed my life to vote. It starts there with me. I never cared for politics before Barack Obama. I never thought it mattered to people like me.

  • I want to have fun. It's a beautiful life. You learn, you win, you lose, but you get up.

  • I don't want any title. I just say what I say, and hopefully somebody gets it, man. I'm not perfect, and I'm just here and trying to make a dollar, and being real at the same time, you know?

  • Some people say I'm conscious, some say I'm a gangsta rapper - it's just me doing me. I'm stomping in my own lane. I'm doing what I do.

  • Marley is someone before his time, man. He's - he's almost - he's like a deity, like almost, you know what I mean? I just talk about what's going on, but of course, you know, Bob, before rappers, was already laying that kind of thing down.

  • Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.

  • My record company had to beg me to stop filmin' music videos in the projects. No matter what the song was about, I had 'em out there.

  • To me, creatively challenging myself is my version of owning the Nets.

  • When you have a daughter, you want to protect her from the things that I've seen out there, you know, the things that's out there that ain't good for her. It's a crazy world we live in.

  • I just enjoy life now. I just enjoy every morning I get to wake up.

  • GaGa is one of my favourites. Her voice is incredible and she's fearless and she's ahead of the game. She's ahead of the entire game, and I admire that.

  • Unfortunately, man, a lot of places in America have to deal with unnecessary violence. Somebody like me who knows it firsthand and could relate... I had a best friend killed, plenty other friends killed. I been through it. I seen it.

  • The flaws, the mistakes I make - that's the real me.

  • I've been called everything. Gangsta rap. I've been called conscious rap. You know, everything. Whoever feels like calling it whatever they want to call it, that's on them.

  • I think hip-hop could help rebuild America, once hip-hoppers own hip-hop... We are our own politicians, our own government, we have something to say. We're warriors. Soldiers.

  • Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun. My fun is not doing the easy work. My fun is doing what's me.

  • "Never stop. Never settle." I believe in this message.

  • ...Shorty's laugh was cold-blooded as he spoke so foul, Only twelve tryin to tell me that he liked my style. Then I rose, wiping the blunt's ash from my clothes, Then froze, only to blow the herb smoke through my nose.

  • A lot of times it seems like, you ain't gon' make it where you wanna be in life. But, yo if you got a plan, believe me you gon' get there. You gon' get everything you ever wanted

  • Act your age don't pretend to be older than you are give yourself time to grow

  • Always observe, watch, and talk to older people.

  • America is a melting pot for all different groups of people, historically. And it's rare that the story of all of these people will be told in the history books. So I always felt I had to find out my history for myself and research my roots.

  • Anybody can be a rapper, but not anybody can be a classical artist.

  • Anybody I'm dating, I don't want them to talk about my music. I don't talk about my music to them.

  • At one point, the old school club retires and you're next up to bat, but if you stop before your time, you will see someone else live your dream.

  • Beyond the walls of intelligence, life is defined

  • Born alone, die alone, no crew to keep my crown or throne

  • Business, endorsements and things of that nature, I got into it kinda naturally. Those ventures materialised as a direct result of things that I was actually doing; all the partnerships have been organic and not necessarily etched out plans for monetary gain.

  • But uhh, a thug changes, and love changes and best friends become strangers, word up

  • But whats it all worth, cant take it when you under this earth Rich men died and tried, but none of it worked They just rob your grave, Id rather be alive and paid Before my numbers called, historys made Somell fall, but I rise, thug or die Makin choices, that determine my future under the sky To rob steal or kill, Im wondering why Its a dirty game, is any man worthy of fame? Much to success to ya, even if you wish me the opposite Sooner or later we'll all see who the prophet is.

  • Аll I need is one life, one try, one breath, I'm one man. What I stand for speaks for itself...they don't understand.

  • Dogs live longer than rappers.

  • Don't ever give up on yourself. Keep pushing because the change of guards is what life's all about.

  • For my hustlers, here's some motivation: He who has begun is half done.

  • Freedom or jail clips inserted, a baby's being born/ Same time a man is murdered, the beginning and end.

  • God gushed me out his nuts, the devil swallowed me up and I burnt a hole in his guts

  • Hip-hop is bigger than the South; hip-hop is bigger than New York.

  • Hip-hop is making a lot of noise. It should get some more spotlight.

  • Hip-hop is such an amazing thing that kids still want to do it. They're not saying, "Ugh, that's the old people's music." No, they're younger than they've ever been that want to get into hip-hop music.

  • How can you lose when you're doing you?

  • I can't control what people think. They know who I am.

  • I didn't really do many business ventures throughout my career because I would have an idea and then before I'd have a chance to make something of it, I'd see someone else do it. I just liked to watch my fellow artists become entrepreneurs and be people who can inspire the next generation. I did that more with my songs.

  • I don't have time for the news clippings. I got my own mission.

+1
Share
Pin
Like
Send
Share