“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.”

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

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.

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.

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

I love the art world, I love art galleries, I love what it means – I love art.

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.

When you’re a teenager, you want to meet a lot of girls – you want to get the most girls.

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’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.

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

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 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.

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.

I’m just little me, an American who wants to see his country do better.

Every time I get in the studio, I feel like I wanna have some fun.

The flaws, the mistakes I make – that’s the real me.

My music comes from many, many, many places. My emotions, my feelings, my thoughts, and conversations I have with people I know who influence me.

The way I think I should stay out of trouble is by stayin’ busy. With idle time comes a lot of biz, so the more my work load is heavy, I’ll have no time to get into any trouble or makin’ dis tracks or get into conversation about any other rappers.

I could sit right here and have a 15-minute conversation with somebody and change their whole life.

Good company, lively conversation, and the endearments of friendship fill the mind with great pleasure.

The greatest use of your words is prayer. Talk to God about EVERYTHING, all the time. Maintain a running conversation.

If you want to be a good conversationalist, be a good listener. To be interesting, be interested.

Start today by practicing constant conversation with God and continual mediation on his Word. Prayer lets you speak to God; mediation lets God speak to you.

The fear that I would one day run out of things to say to you became the hope that soon I can sit in silence with you.