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I started studying in '85 and got knowledge of self and started spitting. What was going on was taking the understanding of what I was reading and applying it with my life and applying it with my rhymes.

Rakim

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Rakim
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: January 28
Manufacturer
Poet
Rapper
Singer
Songwriter
New York City
New York
William Michael Griffin
Self
Rhyme
Going
Studying
Life
Taking
Started
Study
Understanding
Spitting
Reading
Rhymes
Knowledge
Applying

More quotes by Rakim

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I don't want to put nobody on blast but in the beginning it's like somebody telling you somebody looks like you and you've been looking in the mirror your whole life and nobody looks like you. Same thing with me.
Rakim
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I think rap was a better move for me but football's been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn't trade this in for nothing.
Rakim
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I love listening to old records to keep nostalgic feeling it allows me to not lose the love for hip-hop.
Rakim
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I had a little more freedom when I started sampling because you could actually do what you wanted to do.
Rakim
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I just try to do me and stay out of harms way.
Rakim
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Tried to put shame in my game to make a name, I'mma put it on a bullet...put it in your brain.
Rakim
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I always had deep respect for my peoples 'cause of the love they gave me and the know how that they showed me through the years.
Rakim
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I go to Queens for queens to get the crew from Brooklyn, Make money in Manhattan and never been tooken. Go Uptown and the Bronx to boogie down, Get strong on the Island, recoup, and lay around.
Rakim
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I start to think, and then I sink Into the paper like I was ink When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines I escape when I finish the rhyme.
Rakim
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I go up in the supermarkets and people always go what are you doing here and I go I'm hungry in a sarcastic but nice way just to let them know yo I'm human too man.
Rakim
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Even when I was out on tour I used to fly home on the weekends to be with my girl and be with my family to see my kids grow up and just be there for them. When they started going to school it was like that too whether it was homework or if I have to go up to the school I was there.
Rakim
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There's so many different ways to write a rhyme its stupid man. I don't understand why the majority of the rap game sounds the same.
Rakim
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I never really liked the idea of doing mixtapes but at the same time it was a big thing a lot of people were doing it and it almost got to the point where if you didn't touch the mixtape circuit it was like you didn't care.
Rakim
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It's been a long time...I shouldn't have left you Without a strong rhyme to step to.
Rakim
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Teach the youth to speak the truth, show them what peace can do
Rakim
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Stay wise and the mind is untouchable.
Rakim
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I always had an intelligence with me, I was always in the streets, I was always trying to do good. I was always looking for something to guide me. In the beginning church wasn't it.
Rakim
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What I want to do right now is give hip hop back to the hood. Before it was a neighborhood thing where it belonged to the hood and the rappers were reporting and there were rules and parameters. Now it seems like the artist's game.
Rakim
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I always wanted to kind of make the listener feel like it was them that I was talking about, or to the point that I could say the rhyme, and feel like it's them saying it.
Rakim
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Subconsciously, Islam took over me so it was like eighty or ninety percent of the fabric of the person I was.
Rakim