I'm kind of like a rapper trapped in a singer's body.
I'm proud of everything I do, but I think I'm the most happy about becoming a rapper. It was my entrance into everything. That helped me get into acting.
I love rap, and I try to write a bit like a rapper, to have a flow.
I've never been the straight rapper that is going to stand in a cipher and battle all day. I started off battle rapping, but to me, making songs became more important than freestyles... I've met many rappers who can freestyle but can't make a record.
I was a rapper and a DJ, and if you wanted to be involved in hip-hop, you had to be involved in the sonic, the kinetic and the visual aspects. The visual was graffiti.
As a female, we always have to be labeled this new female rapper. It's never like, 'I heard this rapper Tink.' It's always, 'I heard a female rapper.'
Being called a conscious rapper is quite a compliment. It's a great thing to be. But as an artist, my nature is to not be in a box.
I'm glad I'm a woman; I'm glad I'm a rapper because I get to speak to these people who did not get spoken for in this genre.
I'm a rapper... Gaga's a fantastic artist, you know, she paved her way. She's opened her own lane. But I think that I have my own lane. And we never cross. Ever. So, you know, I really don't get the comparison anymore. Our music doesn't sound the same. Our stage presence is not the same. I just can't see the similarities.
No one said, 'This is the best female rapper.' It's more like, 'Lizzo can really rap.' I think its because I'm not that sexy girl. I'm that beast girl.
It's like, boom! - I've got a girlfriend. It turned out to be a good thing because it made me a rapper.
I like Jay-Z. I love Luda. I love Ledisi. I like Beyonce, of course. I think she's just brilliant. She's a triple threat. But my favorite - my all-time rapper is Tupac. See, I could have been Tupac's girlfriend.
Coming up as a female rapper - well, a female artist in general - everything is just so black and white.
I was only 11 when we filmed the pilot. The idea of a rapper being a star on a sitcom just wasn't heard of.
I never understood the idea that I was a 'backpack rapper.' I think that's a lazy way that people started thinking. They like saying that because I got dreads. I look like I belong a certain place, so it's easy to put everything in a box.
I'm a rapper and, obviously, hip hop rap is my main thing. But I also like to dive into different genres and kind of be a bit more experimental and open myself up a bit, whether that's taking influence from jazz or soul or electronic.
I almost turned down '8 Mile.' I was due to start 'ER,' and I learned they really wanted me to be in '8 Mile.' I didn't know Eminem; I just knew he was a rapper and saw what everyone else saw in the media. I thought they were just trying to capitalize on his popularity.
I'm a surprisingly good rapper.
I don't think any rapper can go back. You can be a car salesman, a bank teller - I mean, really good jobs, and people are still gonna look at you and be like, 'You used to rap; what happened?'
I don't know how to be a rapper. I just know how to be me.
I'm obviously not a rapper, and I don't have any claims to be one, really.
Lets be clear, Dolly Parton is a rapper. Somewhere before all the country, I don't know what happens up there in the mountains when you're growing up, but she has been spitting rhymes for a very long time - 50 years I'd say.
When I was at Upright Citizens Brigade, I would pretend to be a sad, drunk rapper.
Because hip-hop has no requirements, you deal with people that have the least intelligence on the planet. Some of the people that compare themselves to me, compare themselves to me because they rap and I rap. They can't even read the contracts that they sign to be a rapper, to do the deal.
I feel bad for kids growing up that, like, their favorite rapper is Lil Yachty.
When I was younger, I was addicted to the idea of becoming a rapper.
I don't consider myself a gangsta rapper. But I'm probably more qualified to be a gangsta rapper than people who call themselves that. I've been through that life.
I secretly want to be a rapper!
I don't consider myself just a rapper or just a singer. I'm a music producer, lyricist. I'm a poet as well, and acting is also a part of big entertainment.
I'm not a rapper.
When it came time to be a professional rapper, I wouldn't sign anything without reading it. There was no way I was going to have people make decisions for me or wake up one day and find that I was broke because I never bothered to read a contract.
I don't profess to be a political rapper, like groups such as 'Dead Prez' or 'Public Enemy', but I think social commentary should make its way into your music. Speaking on your neighbourhood is social commentary - what happens, what's going on.
Usually I start with a beat, I start making a beat, and my producer side is making the beat. And on a good day, my rapper side will jump in and start the writing process - maybe come up with a hook or start a verse. Sometimes it just happens like that. A song like 'Lights Please' happens like that.
There was a time in the '90s where, as an African-American man, you had to be a misogynistic R&B star or a rapper, and I didn't fit into either one of those. I was advised by my label to remain closeted at that time.
Primarily I see myself as so much more than a rapper. I really believe I am the voice for a lot of people who don't have that microphone or who can't rap.
I think that's a weak excuse, to say because a rapper's getting older that he ain't got it no more. Nah. Don't go by that philosophy. Let's just recognize that talent is within.
