Top 46 Hip Hop Artist Quotes
#1. There are situations where I'm uncomfortable saying, "I'm a hip-hop artist." In some circles, the response is like, "Oh, OK, so ... you have whores and your ties are shiny?"
Pharoahe Monch
#2. I don't wanna be known as just a hip-hop artist. I wanna take it to a whole 'nother level.
Eve
#3. I love all types of music. Jazz, classical, blues, rock, hip-hop. I often write scripts to instrumentals like a hip-hop artist. Music inspires me to write. It's either music playing or completely silent. Sometimes distant sound fuels you. In New York there's always a buzzing beneath you.
Chadwick Boseman
#4. That's one of my struggles as a hip-hop artist. If I feel like doing a super conscious song where I don't even rap.
SonReal
#5. It's a lot different being a hip-hop artist. You just show up with a piece of paper with your words on it, say it in the mic, then you leave and some other guy does all the music.
Caroline Polachek
#6. It's not for me to determine what a country artist has in common with a hip-hop artist. You go for those with long-lasting careers. And that's what I've had as my target all my life.
Clive Davis
#7. It's such a phenomenon for a hip-hop artist to fully embrace his Christian roots and his faith. And that becomes something that people almost need you to justify.
LeCrae
#8. Reggae was always a passion of mine. I used to say in interviews that I would love to do a reggae album. But it consumed my life being a hip-hop artist and being Heavy D, which I'm happy and proud of.
Heavy D
#9. I think the greatest hip-hop artist of all time is Jay-Z, without a doubt. He just keeps amazing me with his performance, and since '96, that guy has been producing at least one hit every summer and every winter. That's a pretty good resume.
John Cena
#10. There's not a hip-hop artist that didn't snatch of piece of Bob Marley. It's totally impossible.
Wyclef Jean
#11. If you see something is going wrong within politics and the world today, then some Hip Hop artist is gonna come along and get straight with it. If they think that there's a lot of racism going on then there's another Hip Hop artist who's gonna come out and speak their mind.
Afrika Bambaataa
#12. Speaking out against rap music is useless, and it's futile. The reality is there's criticism for everything, but Jay-Z is one of the most remarkable artists of our time of any genre, and as a hip-hop artist he carries the weight of that art form with such splendor and grace and genius.
Michael Eric Dyson
#13. I love hip-hop and you can't tell me I'm not a hip-hop artist.
Derek Luke
#14. I am a hip-hop artist, as you probably know. My hip-hop name is Big Smalls.
Jo Brand
#15. I tour whether I have album out or not. I tour more than any other hip-hop artist.
Talib Kweli
#16. I see myself as a hip-hop artist, but I never wanted to make music for a specifically white audience. That's not what I grew up around.
G-Eazy
#17. Comedy is the one absolutely self-aware art form. Actually, hip-hop's another one, I suppose. Because in your songs you're talking about how good a hip-hop artist you are. It's like a painter painting a panting of himself painting a painting.
Bo Burnham
#18. As a hip-hop artist who likes fashion, who can't help but notice people like Kanye West, Tiger, Big Sean and definitely T.I.P. These guys really understand how to be progressive and fashion forward.
B.o.B
#19. I would just like to see hip-hop journalism in general take a step up and match the artistry. There have been great writers in music who are the caliber of artist as a writer as the people that they're covering.
Brother Ali
#20. I think hip-hop has more to do with rock and roll. Kanye West is, in many ways, a rock artist.
Ian Astbury
#21. I have inherited two of the most important brands in hip-hop, Def Jam and Roc-A-Fella. Reid and Universal Music Group have given me the opportunity to manage the companies I have contributed to my whole career. I feel this is a giant step for me and the entire artist community.
Jay-Z
#22. My graffiti really comes more from a May '68, sort of Situationist vibe than the hip-hop world. I think a real graffiti artist would find me a poser.
Mike Mills
#23. Hip hop is ever changing and has definitely entered a new era. Many fans have mixed feelings over the direction of rap as more and more artists are emerging with content that some would describe as less than meaningful.
Eric Thomas
#24. I toured with Skrillex, did an HBO commercial with Diplo. In the hip hop movement, I was the first artist Travis Scott ever featured with before he blew up. I had the songs with Chris Brown and Tyga. I've worked with some of the biggest artists in the world.
Wynter Gordon
#26. There's a number of hip-hop artists who are highly talented but politically retrograde.
Cornel West
#27. Justin Broadrick has stated that the drum machine sound was heavily influenced by hip hop artists in the late 80s, particularly the beat on "Christbait Rising" which Broadrick was quoted as saying, "It was my attempt at copying the rhythm sample on 'Microphone Fiend' by Eric B & Rakim".
Justin Broadrick
#28. I think that hip-hop is more of an individual effort. That means you're an artist from the streets, they expect you to rap about the streets, because that's what happens there.
Conor Oberst
#29. I think I've been able to witness Canadian hip-hop get a lot more respect from our own people. I think some of the artists that came before me were doing their thing but lacked a strong next generation of artists to help them capitalize.
JD Era
#30. The beats change, I mean you got a lot of artists out there advancing new sound, new technology, new beats everything sounding very futuristic, so I feel it would have been boring for me to do another hip-hop record.
Kool Keith
#31. Critics are always complaining about the materialism of hip-hop and accusing the artists of living way above their means. But this ostentatious sort of spending isn't strictly the province of hip-hop. It's almost like a continuation of the American Dream.
Simon De Pury
#32. Whether looking at pop music, hip-hop or R&B, it's rare to find an artist who hasn't been touched or affected by the power and soul of gospel music. In fact, many of today's popular artists such as Whitney Houston, John Legend, and Katy Perry started their careers in the church choir.
Marvin Sapp
#33. The thing about hip-hop is they always want to classify you as one particular artist, but hip-hop is about going outside the box and expressing yourself however you want to.
Kendrick Lamar
#34. When I first met Big, we were both at a 'Bad Boy' family photo shoot. I was kind of familiar with the name Biggie Smalls, but I really wasn't that much into hip-hop at the time, so I really didn't know that was him. He said he didn't even know I was an artist on 'Bad Boy.'
Faith Evans
#35. When I started, I was 23 years old directing my own music videos; I'm co-producing on my album; I'm hands-on with everything. I'm more than just a pretty boy: I'm an artist. I'm not saying I'm a hip-hop music artist, I'm an artiste.
ASAP Rocky
#36. My goal the whole time has been for people to see me as a stand-alone artist. I came out with Young Money, the biggest hip-hop label in the world at the time. And then it was, 'How do I branch away from Lil Wayne?'
Nicki Minaj
#37. For me the top music though has to be Rock or Hip Hop and artists like Kanye West.
Steve Purdy
#38. The competitive nature of hip-hop culture has always had battling involved with it. So you battle with the other artist but not necessarily in business and everywhere else.
Curtis Jackson
#39. Man, I would demand that artist come to the table with better variety. I would demand that musicians know music history, not just Hip-Hop, so that we could understand. The better your 'listening ear' is, the better your music will be.
Pharoahe Monch
#40. Hip hop has always been, for us, for artists who are pure to the craft - any place overseas, whether it's Australia, any place in Asia, Germany, Africa, it becomes something where you can still go and work. Hip hop is an import culture. We're spoiled by it here. It's homegrown.
Talib Kweli
#41. Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted,
Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets.
Where were you the day hip-hop died?
Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
Talib Kweli
#42. When I fell in love with hip-hop, there was a terminology at the time called "battling." All that was just battling with other artists, but after Tupac and those incidents when it spilled into the street and turned into a negative situation, battling turned into a beef. A whole new dynamic.
Curtis Jackson
#43. Hip-hop is a competition culture. It's based around, "My DJ is better than you. My graffiti artist is better than you."
Ice-T
#44. I just want to kind of tackle every kind of form that exists in the comedy world; whether it be stand-up or hidden camera or parody. Kind of slap it in a movie with hip-hop artists and actors, comedians and girls. I just want to do something fun.
Pauly Shore
#45. I grew up listening to Tupac, Biggie and other hip hop artists in the 90s. To this day, their music is still some of my favorite.
Michael Isabella
#46. So few hip-hop artists have ever advanced. Their songs on their seventh, eighth albums sound exactly like the songs on their first album. More than an artist, I'm a real person-and real people grow. And I wanna just sing my growth.
Kanye West
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