Rakim quotes:

Timeless, so age don't count in the booth When your flow stay submerged in the fountain of youth

Take 7 emcees put em in a line And add 7 more brothers who think they can rhyme It'll take 7 more before I go for mine And that's 21 emcees ate up at the same time.

I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke, Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke.

Stay wise and the mind is untouchable.

Hopefully we get back to the raw essence of hip hop again.

I don't accept that the new generation is looking for anything different than what we've always been looking for. Depending on the moment, they want bangers that make them crack their neck, they want tracks that put them in a zone where they can sit back and chill.

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.

I start to think, and then I sink Into the paper like I was ink When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines I escape when I finish the rhyme.

A lot of the things that go on we can avoid some of it.

And I'll break, when I'm through breakin, I'll leave you broke, Drop the mic when I'm finished, and watch it smoke

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.

Do what you do don't let the label tell you to do something else.

Every time someone come out with an album don't change the whole style up but don't do what they are expecting. Surprise them.

Everything becomes too normal after a while.

Feed me hip-hop and I start tremblin'

Hopefully the rappers can start to open the eyes in the neighborhoods and communities.

I always tried to manage my money smart.

I can take a phrase that's rarely heard/Flip it - now it's a daily word

I've always tried to insert consciousness and spirituality in my records, interpreting the writings of all cultures and religions and how they apply to life in modern times.

I'm everlastin, I can go on for days and days With rhyme displays that engrave deep as X-rays I can take a phrase that's rarely heard, FLIP IT Now it's a daily word

A lot of reasons I didn't do records with people is because I never wanted their light to reflect on me.

A lot of times when people listen to music it's because they feel down, and that's when serious hip-hop comes into play. When times is hard, people can hear a rapper that inspires them to do what they [are] supposed to do.

Back in the day, music imitated life. Now it's the opposite way around: life is imitating music. It's like whatever the rappers say, people think that that's how we're supposed to be; but back then, we kind of looked at the streets, and we made music for that.

Back then all I cared about was rhyming and making beats. That was my trade, my hobby.

Being in this game if you are gonna sell drugs and make records too then as many records you make is gonna be as many people that know you sell drugs. We got the hip hop cops listening now.

Even when I was out on tour I used to fly home on the weekends to be with my girl and be with my family to see my kids grow up and just be there for them. When they started going to school it was like that too whether it was homework or if I have to go up to the school I was there.

Get your money and as long as nobody is stepping on my wad then we're good.

Go to the club or go to the block or go hang out and things start coming.

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.

I came in the door, I said it before I never let the mic magnetize me no more. But it's biting me, fighting me, inviting me to rhyme, I can't hold it back...I'm looking for the line. Taking off my coat, clearing my throat, My rhyme will be kicking until I hit my last note.

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

I don't want to put nobody on blast but in the beginning it's like somebody telling you somebody looks like you and you've been looking in the mirror your whole life and nobody looks like you. Same thing with me.

I don't work out too much and it's wild because it bugs me out.

I don't work out too much. I just do some pushups when I feel the right hook is getting a lil weak.

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.

I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine. But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?

I get the Martian look all the time even in the hood. I walk down to the shopping block and people just look at me with their mouth open man like what are you doing out here and I'm like I'm trying to get a pair of sneakers duke what's good? What are you doing [and I'm like] I'm hungry I wanted some juice and I needed some bread.

I go to Queens for queens to get the crew from Brooklyn, Make money in Manhattan and never been tooken. Go Uptown and the Bronx to boogie down, Get strong on the Island, recoup, and lay around.

I go up in the supermarkets and people always go what are you doing here and I go I'm hungry in a sarcastic but nice way just to let them know yo I'm human too man.

I got one of the illest crews in NY but when I travel it's mostly me and my girl, me and my kids or me and one or two of my dudes but the majority of the time its just me.

I had a little more freedom when I started sampling because you could actually do what you wanted to do.

I just try to do me and stay out of harms way.

I just try to eat as good as possible.

I kinda write in sequences that I live through.

I love listening to old records to keep nostalgic feeling; it allows me to not lose the love for hip-hop.

I love to see when people are real passionate about what they feel and what they say.

I loved the hood and still love the hood but I had to realize like Ra you a rapper now you're in the public eye.

I never really liked the idea of doing mixtapes but at the same time it was a big thing a lot of people were doing it and it almost got to the point where if you didn't touch the mixtape circuit it was like you didn't care.

I never sold drugs. A lot of people used to think I was that dude but I never sold a crumb. I used to always be upset with that.

I never tried to crossover or be in the public's eye everyday. I'm laid back with it and at times I wondered if I was doing the right thing promoting myself staying back a little bit and coming out when I felt that I had too. But when I get all the accolades and hear the things people say it just puts it all together for me man. It's a blessing.

I never wanted to do the mixtape circuit and 300,000 people hear it and that's a chapter of my life and when I do another album I'm coming off of that chapter but the whole world didn't hear that chapter so it's like I would have to start over.

I never went to college. I think about it a lot. I can't watch a game without thinking where I would have been if I had ga head and went to college and pursued my career.

I only made x amount of albums in 20 years and to still be living comfortably. A lot of people and friends look at me and be like yo Ra how do you do it? You don't go on tour every year and you don't make an album every year, you chill with your family and watch TV. Everyone else is out on tour getting that money. But I managed to do my thing right with the help of my accountant and I'm still comfortable.

I saw a lot when I was young. The first time I got arrested I was twelve years old.

I see my pops everyday and that's what I wanted.

I seen her in the subway, on my way to Brooklyn. "Hello, good lookin, is this seat tooken?" On the A Train, pickin at her brain, I couldn't get her number, I couldn't get her name. I said, "I still like your style and fashion, But I hate your hot sadiddy attitude wit a passion. Is it because brothers like to hawk a lot? Is it because your sign don't talk a lot?" She turned away, no play, I said, "OK, You don't really look good, I hope you have a bad day."

I started studying in '85 and got knowledge of self and started spitting. What was going on was taking the understanding of what I was reading and applying it with my life and applying it with my rhymes.

I think half of our life is written out for us and things happen the way their supposed to happen.

I think rap was a better move for me but football's been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn't trade this in for nothing.

I think things are gonna change. I'm gonna take the age limit off of hip hop.

I try not to eat too much beef. I try to eat healthy.

I try to keep myself out of the unnecessary bullshit.

I used to roll up: this is a hold up, ain't nuthin funny. Stop smiling, be still, don't nuthin move but the money.

I wake you up and as I stare in your face, you seem stunned. Remember me? The one you got your idea from?

If anybody can make a change it's the rappers.

If something comes at me of course I'm gonna handle my business but I'm not the type to provoke the bullshit so I don't really get a lot of that.

I'm just an addict, addicted to music Maybe it's a habit...I gotta use it.

I'm not a flamboyant artist.

I'm one dude and when I make my bed I lay in it but don't stereotype me. Never sold a crumb to this day and I don't do nothing on the side.

It ain't where you're from, it's where you're at.

It is what it is but I do me and I think people respect that. They see me out in the hood by myself or with wifey and I don't have no bodyguards.

It might sound crazy but you put your money up and take out a little every week. You put yourself on a salary instead of getting $7,000 this week, $20,000 next week and $5,000 the week after that. Take a $1,000. You got your toys, you got everything and your money under your mattress. Break it down and have a salary to take care of you and your family and stretch that money.

It might take a while but I think the rap game is the people that can do it. We're all role models more than athletes because athletes don't wear clothes like the kid in the hood and they don't walk and talk like the kids in the hood. We're closer to them than anybody because they can look at us and see them.

It's a bold statement but I think people need to read between the lines.

It's been a long time...I shouldn't have left you Without a strong rhyme to step to.

I've always been a fan of hip hop and there are cats out there that I admire.

I've always been a picky eater but I'm not the healthiest eater.

I've been writing for so long I got a lot of different ways to write.

Keep your guns on and don't let anybody tell you how to load your guns or bust ya guns.

Let's travel at magnificent speeds around the universe What could you say as the Earth gets further and further away Planets are small as balls of clay Astray into the Milky Way, world's outasight Far as the eye can see, not even a satellite Now stop and turn around and look As you stare in the darkness, your knowledge is took! So keep starin' soon you suddenly see a star You better follow it, cause it's the R.

My moms is strictly Christian but once I got knowledge of self and started reading she used to love when I would sit there and tell her some of the things that I learned. It gave her an open mind to where she started believing in the most high.

My son plays football so I coach a couple of his teams. My youngest son just started playing last year and I assistant coached for one of his teams. I try to be there as much as I can. I also want to kill the stereotype. I want them to respect me as a man and a father first and then if you like hip hop go buy my album.

My whole thing is if it wasn't for people like ya'll and people like them I wouldn't be me. I love every minute of it.

Not follow me but follow the lyrics.

Now it seems like hip hop belongs to the people you see in the videos and radios. So I want to give it bring it back to the hood, make a statement for NY to put us back in our proper perspective, and of course let them know that Ra still spits fire.

Now life is imitating art.

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

Once I get the track I know what to do with it.

Once you start making money you have to put things into perspective.

Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music man. It's like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.

Rappers are separated.

Self-esteem makes me super, superb and supreme

So all hail the honorable, microphone phenomenal Persona is unbombable? Trust me son, I continue like a saga do, bringin' you the drama to allow you that the chronicle has just begun.

So I start my mission- leave my residence Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents

Some of you been trying to write rhymes for years, But weak ideas irritate my ears. Is this the best that you can make? Cause if not, and you got more...I'll wait.

Sometimes I can't believe half of the love that I get.

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

Sometimes I look at new artists trying to come out or trying to make their name and it's like they're coming into the game blind. They don't really know what the world is going to expect from them and they really trying to get in where they fit in but me I almost got the red carpet.

Sometimes I see where I want to take the song and wind up at the end and come back to the beginning. I don't miss nothing and everything is good. Everything I thought of is incorporated in it.

Sometimes you start flowing and shits starts adding on to whatever cipher you're dealing with. Meanwhile you got all of these thoughts in your head and you don't get enough time to put them down. That's another reason I started writing from the last word to the front word. It's methods to the madness. Sometimes I can't understand it or explain it but it is what it is.

Subconsciously, Islam took over me so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.

Teach the youth to speak the truth, show them what peace can do

That's another thing yo rappers are scared to bring new styles out. There's so many different ways we can be flowing but everybody chooses to flow the generic way.

The money from every unit being sold is what I feel every artist should see.

The older I get the wiser and more skillful I get.

The physical was never the best part of the body.

There is still consciousness in hip hop.

There's so many different ways to write a rhyme its stupid man. I don't understand why the majority of the rap game sounds the same.

Things happen for a reason.

Thinkin' of a master plan Cause ain't nothin' but sweat inside my hand.

Tried to put shame in my game to make a name, I'mma put it on a bullet...put it in your brain.

We lost the connection between the entertainment world and the neighborhoods.

What I want to do right now is give hip hop back to the hood. Before it was a neighborhood thing where it belonged to the hood and the rappers were reporting and there were rules and parameters. Now it seems like the artist's game.

What was once easy became confused and hard, which brings us back to the mystic question, who is God?

When I go out I get so much love I gotta change my way of thinking.

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

When I write I get to the point where I slow down and I gotta go back into the world and live nahmean.

When you come in the building with your guns don't take them off.

When you're trying to please both sides of the fence at the same time you really can't do that.

Whenever I sat down to write something it was never anything I took lightly. It was something that I'd want you, somebody in Japan, and somebody [over there to hear it].