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The effect hip-hop had on me was enormous. I was exposed to it by happenstance. My father worked at a radio station in New York called WKTU Disco 92. It was the first radio station in New York City to play disco in the late '70s.

Michael Rapaport

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Michael Rapaport
Age: 54
Born: 1970
Born: March 20
Actor
Comedian
Film Actor
Film Director
Podcaster
Television Actor
New York City
New York
Michael David Rapaport
Called
Effect
Happenstance
Father
Radio
Disco
Worked
Station
Firsts
York
Hops
Play
City
Stations
First
Effects
Hips
Late
Exposed
Cities
Enormous

More quotes by Michael Rapaport

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Sometimes you know about a job four months in advance. Sometimes you know about a job four days in advance. It's all different, and my thing is just to try to stay prepared. It's like being a boxer. You never know when you're going to get your next fight, so you have to just stay in shape, mentally and physically and creatively.
Michael Rapaport
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Like any family, like any group - the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, EPMD, Public Enemy - they've had bumps in the road. I just think that because A Tribe Called Quest is so precious to fans, they were concerned about unveiling some of those things.
Michael Rapaport
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A Tribe Called Quest music was so inclusive, so conscious, it brought such a community together.
Michael Rapaport
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Being No. 1. It's talked about all of the time in hip-hop. 'I'm still No. 1! I'm the best! I'm the greatest of all time!' It's the same mentality in sports.
Michael Rapaport
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I love doing things that are titillating. I think race can be very funny, and I think I'm very comfortable discussing it and bringing it up.
Michael Rapaport
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When I was a kid, my first favorite song was probably Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.
Michael Rapaport
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My favorite part is just being able to say and do things that you can't do in real life, and behaving in a way that's just not really acceptable, in the real world.
Michael Rapaport
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My freestyling ability is nonexistent. I can't even write a verse if I tried to sit anywhere and write one. Being a good rapper is hard to do. I'm a good Rapaport, but that's about it.
Michael Rapaport
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Right now I'm taking a break from hip-hop documentaries. But I would do it if things lined up.
Michael Rapaport
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I heard Q-Tip on the Jungle Brothers' song 'The Promo.' It was very exciting. It was very new. The music and the culture around hip-hop was evolving. I think there's an emotional quality to their music and there's a vulnerability to the music. For me, A Tribe Called Quest was my Beatles.
Michael Rapaport
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The thing about New York is you can leave your house without a plan and find the day. You can't do that in Los Angeles. You need to get in your car, all this, you can't just drive around like a lunatic. In New York, you can literally walk outside, and wind up anywhere.
Michael Rapaport
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I'm a New York person. I've never gone out of the way to speak to the press to change my persona - I probably should have. It's too late now. But when I first started I was like, I'm gonna stay this way. I'm gonna be this way, and I continued to. I probably should have sugarcoated it like, This is not really the way I am - I'm an actor.
Michael Rapaport
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At the end of the day, my sole goal, when I go into any scene, is to try to be as honest as I possibly can, and then everything else is second. The most important thing for me is to just be as honest as I possibly can.
Michael Rapaport
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But it all came, and for me, hip-hop has done more for racial divide and racial sort of bringing together than anything in the last 30 years. Seeing people like Eminem sounding like somebody like Jay-Z and just the racial aspects of it all.
Michael Rapaport
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I love my kids, and the moments I have with them, and it's kind of weird, it's such an age old cliche, but the way that my sons, the way they make me feel when I look at them, the way they say things, no one else would probably react to them, but it's a special thing for me.
Michael Rapaport
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Being a good rapper is hard to do. I'm a good Rapaport, but that's about it.
Michael Rapaport
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I'm not going to try and change how people perceive me. I think it's important to be a contradiction. People are contradictions everyone has contradictions. So I don't expect anyone to look at me differently.
Michael Rapaport
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Call it stubborn, call it ignorant, call it what you want, but I don't think I have to join a particular faith or culture or creed or religion just to fit in.
Michael Rapaport
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I'm always gonna be an actor, so I'm trying to figure out what I'm gonna do next. I would love to make a documentary again someday, but I need to take a break from it.
Michael Rapaport
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Each environment is different, each job is different, and each realm of creativity that they give you is different. You try to do the best you can and put as much time into it as you can, but different jobs have different circumstances come about.
Michael Rapaport