Hip-hop has globalized a conception of blackness that has had a political impact, whether or not it had a political intent. – Michael Eric Dyson
As a white teen, I was very drawn to hip-hop culture, almost to the point of disappearing in it – there was a sense of having no sense of authenticity except this one that wasn’t mine. – Jess Row
The thing about places like Trinidad and Jamaica is that they can be very musically insular. There isn’t much space for kids making hip-hop, electronic music, or hybrid genres. – Jillionaire
Out of all the R&B artists that have come out, I think my name has been used most in hip-hop songs. – Keith Sweat
The hip-hop community is made up of a lot of hustlers. Everybody is trying to get theirs, and everybody is trying to eat. – Ludacris
By the time I was a teenager, when I went outside the house, it was about hip-hop all the time. Nothing but hip-hop, block parties. – Mary J. Blige
I’ve always felt that because I’m from Cleveland, which isn’t recognised as a place for hip-hop, I needed to step it up if I wanted to make myself known. – Kid Cudi
I wrote my first song, ‘Conversion’, to this little hip-hop instrumental. I went to an open-mic, plugged my iPod into the P.A., and sang over the beat. – Leon Bridges
From wrestling to my hip-hop thing, I’ve just been able to do so much and meet so many crazy characters. – Randy Savage
Hip-hop is such a disposable art form from a business standpoint. It never treats its artists as art; it never treats its product as art. – Questlove
The thing about hip-hop is that it’s from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been locked out, who have not been recognized. – Russell Simmons
At a certain point, I got into the older, cooler crowd, and they listened to hip-hop. I was desperately trying to fit in. – Rose Byrne
I never made beats to make beats; I only made them when there was a record to make them for. That’s one of the things that has changed in hip-hop that’s made me like it less. It feels much more like it’s a producer-driven medium, where there are all these tracks that are completely interchangeable. – Rick Rubin
Dancehall is just like hip-hop in that it doesn’t always talk about bling; it talks about conscious issues. – Sean Paul
I basically learned hip-hop from *NSYNC. And then while I was touring in theater shows, and I couldn’t take classes in hip-hop but I wanted to, I just watched Justin Timberlake concerts. – Vincent Rodriguez III
Hip-hop deals with bragging and braggadocio, being boastful. It’s always been about who’s got the most money. – Two Chainz
I am multiracial, and I went through different phases – at one point, I listened to Wu-Tang and hip-hop, and then the next year I listened to Joni Mitchell. – Tessa Thompson