Kendrick Lamar

“When I go into the studio - it [words] has to sound the way I heard it in my head. So that's probably one of the biggest things that separates me when I'm working in the studio - just how I hear certain things.”

“The sky is falling, the wind is callingStand for something, or die in the morning”

“Sometimes you have the trends that's not that cool. You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don't really have that lifestyle, and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after awhile. It's really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it.”

“Everybody looking at you crazy,What you gon' do?Lift up your head and keep moving,Or let the paranoia haunt you?”

“That's the ultimate thing I want to do in making music - to be able to inspire somebody else.”

“I don't talk about these things if I haven't lived them, and I've hurt people in my life. It's something I still have to think about when I sleep at night.”

“How am I influencing so many people on this stage rather than influencing the ones that I have back home?”

“My pops and my mom started playing Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers and all these people, but at the same time, they always had Snoop on right behind it in the same mix.”

“The best thing is to always keep honest people around, because when you have a bunch of yes men around that know that you're making a mistake but let you go on with it, that's when it ruins your mind state as an artist.”

“I'm African American / I'm African / I'm black as the moon.”

“I like to let things breathe.”

“Sonnymoon and Quadrants are a couple of bands that really inspire me in terms of the melodics of things and certain tones and just what feels good. It takes me back to the type of music that I grew up on in my household. We played a lot of gangsta rap, but we also played a lot of oldies, and I think that mix is part of what inspires my sound.”

“Me, as a person, I grow. I'm like a chameleon. You know? That is a gift and a curse for me. But more so a gift, because it never puts me in a box.”

“In all my days of schooling, from preschool all the way up to 12th grade, there was not one white person in my class. Literally zero.”

“You grow up inside these neighborhoods and these communities, and you have friends, friends that you love, friends that you grew up with since elementary. And you have their trust, and you have their loyalty. So it brings influence. So no matter how much of a leader I thought I was, I was always under the influence, period.”

“I think my vice would be outdoing myself.”

“Being acknowledged for your work is always a great accomplishment, whether it's people in my city, kids in the street, all the way up to the Grammys.”

“The way people look at me these days - that's the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who've attained a certain position are human.”

“The times that we are in, it's something that you can only feel in the air. You don't even have to talk about it. You don't need the news or the Internet to watch it. You can walk outside and just feel it.”

“I always thought money was something just to make me happy. But I’ve learned that I feel better being able to help my folks, ’cause we never had nothing. So just to see them excited about my career is more of a blessing than me actually having it for myself.”

“There's kids out there that have so much life to live. That's a beautiful thing.”

“Am I the only one who measures time using songs? “Oh it only took me 4 songs to get here! that’s not to long!”

“We all seem to stumble, planning our own demise,Getting the big picture, and making it wallet-sized.”

“When I went back to my old high school, all these kids looking at me like I'm the real big homie, the same way I look at Jay Z, Nas, or Dr. Dre. You would've thought Michael Jackson walked through that joint off the excitement that they had.”

“I live this life at a pace that anyone can go.Know your place, and dedicate your role...To the faith that you'll die alone”

“We're all human at the end of the day, making mistakes. But learn from them is the key.”

“Just let me be me, That's the only way I know.”

“Hip-hop is not the problem, our reality is the problem.”

“It's a great, great experience to finally get the reception that you know you rightfully deserve.”

“I'm sticking to the script, I'm putting that organic feeling back in the game.”

“Eventually you get to this point where you understand what you want to do and get across and sound like.”

“There are so many people pulling at me at one time - some want the business, some want my love, some just want my support, just to be there or to acknowledge them the same way I used to. To be able to figure that out is an ongoing process, because there's always another show, another album, another moment that I don't want to miss. But I'm pacing myself. I hope the powers that be keep me on a straight course.”

“If I told you that a flower bloomed in a dark room, would you trust it?”

“Music was just played all around me, and I couldn't run from it. My pops, he never learned to sing, but he'd have his little drink on the side, and he'd put on the best of his hits - gangster rap or oldies - and he'd sing all day on his mic plugged up to the wall set-up. It's a trip. I've just seen that my whole life, so I've always just had a love for music. By the time I was 13, I really just jumped in it. And it's something I took on to have as a hobby.”

“Kids don't see hate in their eyes. They see the world, and living in it to the best of their abilities. And that's where love comes from for me.”

“It's easy to forget who you are.”

“I'm a person of my own opinions, that's how I was raised. I speak what I feel... A lot of people feel the same way but they're scared to talk. They're really scared of the truth - they only want half of the truth. I've been living like that - forever in fear - but I know what to say and how to say it now. I ain't scared of myself. Y'all may be scared; I'm not scared.”

“I started doing music when I was thirteen; I actually started writing my first rhymes.”

“It's a long time coming as far as the work that I put in. Now I know that I got the stamp but what counts is what comes behind. That's what's really important. Upholding that stamp and not only keeping the energy my way but also spreading that energy out to other artists that are coming up on the West Coast.”

“It's deep-rooted, the music of being young and dumb,It's never muted, in fact, it's much louder where I'm from.”

“You can have the platinum album. But, you know, when you still feel like you haven't quite found your place in the world, it kind of gives a crazy offset.”

“Being able to tell one from start to finish, and making that puzzle come together at the end. That's the art for me.”

“People gonna be they own individuals and have they own worlds and I can't knock it.”

“You can't have people listen to you unless you come to their world and then bring them to yours.”

“I don't vote. I don't do no voting.”

“When I ask OGs why there's so much division in the streets, nobody never really knows. But you know one thing that everybody always mention? A woman.”

“I cut off my ears before i hear your advice and vice versa”

“As long as my music is real, it's no limit to how many ears I can grab.”

“There's a lot of other artists doing things outside of that depth that I enjoy - that music that I can actually have fun to, and not be in depth and think about, then I appreciate that.”

“I don't sugarcoat it you'd die from diabetes if these other niggas wrote it”