“You grow, you mature, you live, and you learn. You get a little wiser, and you learn better ways to handle things.”
― Rakim
“When you look at hip-hop, I want to do that: to spit fire and take our best from the ashes to build our kingdom; to recognize all the regional styles, conscious lyrics, the tracks, underground, mainstream, the way we treat each other. Lose the garbage and rebuild our scene.”
― Rakim
“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.”
― Rakim
“The golden age was when people were starting to understand what hip-hop was and how to use it. I was lucky to come up then. Everybody wanted to be original and have substance; it was somewhat conscious… There was an integrity that people respected.”
― Rakim
“My thing was, I loved music. I played music: I played the saxophone. So the little bit of music knowhow I had, I tried to implement that in every thing I did, from my style, my cadence, the way I tried to pause and stagnate it; that all came from John Coltrane and listening to jazz albums. Trying to rhyme like a jazz player.”
― Rakim
“People think the older you get, the wacker you get. I think the older I get, the better I get.”
― Rakim
“I try to make my flow sound like a John Coltrane solo.”
― Rakim
“The truth never wears out.”
― Rakim
“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.”
― Rakim
“I’m definitely one of them artists that loves putting the track on and having fun with it, but in my own way.”
― Rakim
“I try to stay true to my style, and I understand the foundation of my style and where it came from. But at the same time, you take that experience and learn different ways to write, different ways to turn on that creative energy.”
― Rakim
“I had a lot of respect for Prodigy. He brought the hood to the booth. When we were trying to shape this rap thing into something, he was one of the cats I respected for bringing the hood into the booth.”
― Rakim
“I can’t look at TV without seeing something that’s been influenced by rap. Even commercials for cereal. When I was small, I was a fan of cartoon characters – now the cartoon characters are rapping!”
― Rakim
“Every generation wants that real hip-hop. And I’ve always been able to bring that.”
― Rakim
“You know, I got kids. I got sons, and I try to tell them, ‘Look, man, when you in the car and you get pulled over, hands on the steering wheel. ‘Yes, sir. No sir.’ Your job is to either wind up in jail, so I can come get you, or be able to pull off. That’s your job.’”
― Rakim
“Music, life, a lot of the things that we go through in the world, a lot of questions that we have about the world inspires me.”
― Rakim
“When I started rhyming, my favorite rhythms were from John Coltrane and some of the things he did on sax. And certain rhythms that I hear on drums, I try to emulate with my words, dropping on the same patterns that them beats or them notes would hit.”
― Rakim
“When you’re dealing with a bunch of different producers, you gotta make sure the chemistry fits.”
― Rakim
“My approach to writing rhymes went hand in hand with the music. I’d try to make different rhythms with my rhymes on the track by tripping up patterns, using multi-syllable words, different syncopations. I’d try to be like a different instrument.”
― Rakim
“When you listen to old-school music, you can smell your mother’s food in the kitchen. You can feel where you was when you first heard that song. That’s what’s beautiful about music. It’s for everyone, but we all have individual memories that make us love it.”
― Rakim
“Subconsciously, Islam took over me, so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.”
― Rakim
“Hip-hop has taken a lot of different routes throughout the years, man. I’ve been around since 1986.”
― Rakim
“My thing is, you have to let young artists be young artists.”
― Rakim
“The young kids out there doing their thing, I can’t knock them.”
― Rakim
“Without no disrespect to any artist, there’s a lot of degrading music out there as far as degrading the culture and degrading society as well. That’s individuals that choose to make that kind of music.”
― Rakim
“My mother sang jazz and opera – she even performed at the Apollo on Amateur Night.”
― Rakim
“Eminem is a master.”
― Rakim
“I always say a rapper is like a halfback in the NFL. You got about seven years, then it’s a wrap.”
― Rakim
“Age don’t count in the booth.”
― Rakim
“Back in the day, rappers were ‘bump bump bump ba bump ba bump.’ They was rhyming like that, but I was like, ‘bababa bump bump babum ba babump bababa bump.’”
― Rakim
“Playing the sax and then enjoying jazz music, man – it’s like I learned how to find words inside of the beat.”
― Rakim
“I love what I live, and I live Islam, so I applied it to everything I do. I applied it to my rhymes, and I felt that I wanted the people to know what I knew.”
― Rakim
“When I was in high school, the energy in hip-hop at that point was the park energy… I was just trying to develop my style at that point, and I think, when you’re trying to find your style, you find yourself.”
― Rakim
“I love, you know, a lot of jazz, John Coltrane.”
― Rakim
“You come up, you love music, and then business interferes.”
― Rakim
“When me and Eric did songs back in the day, we didn’t go and sit down in front of no A&R. We made our album, and then, when we finished, we handed it in, and then we picked the best song for the first single.”
― Rakim
“Everything I did on the ‘Paid in Full’ album and those first three albums, I wrote everything right in the studio.”
― Rakim
“I’m a fan of Jay-Z, from the negotiating table to the booth.”
― Rakim
“I just appreciate the love that I get and support from hip-hop.”
― Rakim
“I love what I do. I’m still humble.”
― Rakim
“I try to support my kids in what they do and, at the same time, not push them towards anything.”
― Rakim
“No Doubt is one of the groups that I think everybody listens to, man, and everybody loves Gwen Stefani.”
― Rakim
“Being a new artist, I was trying to make a good album and hope that people like Kool Moe Dee and Melle Mel and some of the firstborns appreciated it. I was being influenced by them brothers there. That’s where I got my start and my first listen.”
― Rakim
“I was always a laid-back, subdued person, and I just try to let that speak through my music.”
― Rakim
“Maybe I’m too sensitive to the struggle, but I think a lot of people that listen to music are trying to escape.”
― Rakim
“As I grew up, a lot of the music was made to uplift the spirit.”
― Rakim
“I love Jay-Z, I love Kanye, and I praise the way he’s been able to bring more business out of the jungle.”
― Rakim
“Sometimes you can’t forgive, but you try to forget.”
― Rakim
“Social media gives a lot of people a platform where they can express their feelings. I like to do mine through songs. I let info build up. In some way, it translates into paper whenever I sit down.”
― Rakim
“The laws are gonna have to change. And it’s 2016. We can’t keep using all the laws that was made back in the 1700s. We’re gonna have to understand that times have changed.”
― Rakim
“When I broke up with Eric B., I went on a little hiatus. Then all I was trying do is find producers. It’s real hard, man.”
― Rakim
“You can’t have 12 records on your album and none of them sound alike. You gotta kind of have something to make them say, ‘That sounds like Rakim.’”
― Rakim
“I always went left to what everybody else was doing. I’m used to going against the grain.”
― Rakim
“I’m a fan of hip-hop as well. I like everybody who keeps the game on their toes and keep it pushing.”
― Rakim
“Jada, Styles P, the LOX, period. You throw on one of their joints… I’m in the whip; I try to keep my cool in the whip. I don’t like bouncing around, getting my crazy on, but it’s certain joints you gotta wild out. Roll the window down, blast the joints, let it be heard. That’s one of them groups that bang it out.”
― Rakim
“I love Kanye for that. Being a producer, making beats, and being a rapper. He does it all.”
― Rakim
“We need the media to know that some of us are really passionate about music.”
― Rakim
“Don’t even go to the studio if you don’t think that your music’s going to do something. You’re wasting your time and my time.”
― Rakim
“We need a few more Kanyes, people that’s really passionate about hip-hop and who keep it alive.”
― Rakim
“I got a lot of vinyl, a lot of music in general in the house.”
― Rakim
“You know, ‘Paid in Full’ is a classic album, man. It kind of got me to where I am now, so I can never get tired of ‘Paid in Full.’”
― Rakim
“In New York, they kind of rode with me from day one: they understand who I am.”
― Rakim
“To know that I was being heard on the radio, it made me feel as if I was, I guess, spread across New York. It was incredible.”
― Rakim
“I don’t believe in writer’s block. I’ll get stuck, but being stuck, I’ll still write a verse. If you know where you’re going, you can always start from there and work your way back.”
― Rakim
“Sometimes I write from the end of the verse to the beginning of the verse.”
― Rakim
“I’m not a mainstream artist. But I’ve seen my kids being born; I’ve seen them take their first steps, I’ve seen them grow up and start school. That’s worth more to me than any umpteen million dollars.”
― Rakim
“I was an athlete in college – a quarterback, a leader – so people telling me what to do doesn’t work.”
― Rakim
“I stick to my guns – that’s what keeps me going as an artist. Stevie Wonder never changed from what he wanted to do, and each new album that came along was dope.”
― Rakim
“I’m very smart with my paper! I stopped buying things for myself a long time ago – now I just buy things for my kids or my wife.”
― Rakim
“Maino is an artist that I feel walks what he talks – you can tell what he raps about and what he’s been through is very similar. You’ve got a lot of rappers that rap about what they’ve heard or seen, but I think Maino is one of the rappers that has actually lived it.”
― Rakim
“Lil Wayne is doing his thing, and so is Drake.”
― Rakim
“One of the main reasons why it didn’t work out for me and Aftermath is because I felt my music should sound one way, and they felt it should sound another. But, I learned a lot from watching Dre, and when I left California, I knew it was time for me to get my own label.”
― Rakim
“There are certain things that I wish people knew – certain things that I feel I started and certain things that I’m responsible for. Sometimes you wish people knew where a certain style of rapping came from or who was the first one to say whatever.”
― Rakim
“You’ve really got to appreciate an artist that’s really outspoken and feels like his music can change the world.”
― Rakim
“I had nothing but respect for Pac.”
― Rakim
“I was an underground artist, but the underground status was successful. Coming from where I came from to see where rap is now, now artists are selling from a million to eight million copies.”
― Rakim
“My kids listen to rap, so I try to keep up with as much as I can.”
― Rakim
“To me, sometimes things outside of rap inspire me to rap.”
― Rakim
“As a young artist, especially in rap and at that time that I came out, originality was big.”
― Rakim
“I was heavily influenced by Melle Mel, Kool Moe Dee, Grandmaster Caz, but I kind of wanted to take it somewhere else.”
― Rakim
“We gotta let hip-hop grow. We gotta let it go through its different phases throughout the different places that’s accepting it.”
― Rakim
“I’m more of a wordsmith, so I like taking different words and trying to see what I can do with them – as many things as possible.”
― Rakim
“It’s hard to have fun and make a fun album when you know that it’s something that you need to say.”
― Rakim
“New York is responsible for bringing that raw, that real gritty hip-hop, because we… originated it.”
― Rakim
“People always tell me that they grew up with me – like I’m their brother or uncle or some other family member. That keeps me going.”
― Rakim
“My aunt Ruth Brown was a jazz musician. I got hooked on it at a young age, understanding what John Coltrane was doing playing two notes on the saxophone at the same time, which is impossible.”
― Rakim
“I know how to read music, watching my mom and listening to Mom play music.”
― Rakim
“I’m not in that state of mind that I was back in ’86 – hip-hop is not in that state of mind that it was back in ’86. Times change. I change.”
― Rakim
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