I was a dreamer, life was a gamble;
Born in a casino, but God never give burdens you can’t handle.
Music is my ammo…I’m ready for battle.

K’naan, “Better,” Country, God, or the Girl, 2012

I never rapped on an R&B record, and I never will.
I got these phony muthafuckas talkin bout ‘Let’s keep it real.’
But they don’t know how to take they own advisement,
Going out, do it solo on an advertisement, commercializing.
Fuckin’ sell out, nigga…this is hip-hop, not fashion.

B-Real, “Strictly Hip-Hop,” from Cypress Hill’s III: Temples of Boom, 1995. More quotes from Cypress Hill >

My feet might fail me, my heart might ail me,
The synagogues of Satan might accuse or jail me,
Strip, crown, nail me, brimstone hail me…
They might defeat the flesh but they could never ever kill me.
They might feel the music but could never ever feel me.

Jay Electronica, “Better In Tune With the Infinite,” 2014

The motto goes: Sex, Drugs and Rock ‘n’ Roll.
I prefer: Love, Hugs and Hip-Hop Soul.

Zev Love X (aka MF Doom), “Figure of Speech,” from K.M.D.’s Mr. Hood, 1991. More MF Doom quotes…

I hate The Police so much I’d probably assassinate Sting,
My System of a Down Rages Against the Machine.
Tie you up in a Slipknot and hold Alice In Chains inside her dreams.

Chino XL, “90 Bars of Intervention,” RICANStruction, 2012

I’d count my blessings, but I suck at math.

Eminem, “So Far…,” The Marshall Mathers LP 2, 2013

We ain’t speak, clicking heat is our Morse code.

Ka, “Jungle,” Night’s Gambit, 2013

We missed a lot of church, so the music is our confessional.

Big Boi, “Aquemini,” from Outkast’s Aquemini, 1998

They claim we’re products from the bottom of Hell,
But the black is back, and it’s bound to sell.
Picture us coolin’ out on the Fourth of July…
And if you heard we were celebratin’, that’s a worldwide lie.

Flavor Flav, “Louder than a Bomb,” from Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988

CIA, FBI, all they tell us is lies.
And when I say it, they get alarmed…
‘Cause I’m louder than a bomb.

Chuck D., “Louder Than a Bomb,” from Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, 1988

I wonder if these wack niggas realize they wack,
And they the reason that my people say they tired of rap.

Common, “Chi-City,” Be, 2005

Never looking back or too far in front of me,
The present is a gift, and I just want to Be.

Common, “Be,” Be, 2005

Cloned chickens walking around without heads,
The food is contaminated, the water got lead in it.
Population control, make the babies sick,
All these RFID chips, RU-486…
This is a war against consciousness,
Controlling your soul, sort of a psychological dictatorship.
And we are on the front lines,
Guilty as charged if intellect is a crime.

Pharoahe Monch, “W.A.R.,” W.A.R. (We Are Renegades), 2011

Long as I live large, life will be luxury,
Ladies in Lamborghinis…love is like luck to me.

Redman, “Hardcore,” from EPMD’s Business as Usual, 1990

The world is kinda cold and the rhythm is my blanket.

Q-Tip, “Verses from the Abstract,” from A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, 1991

I know I’d be the man if I cold yanked the plug on R&B…but I can’t, and that’s bugged.

Q-Tip, “Buggin’ Out,” The Low End Theory, 1991. More from ATCQ…