I'm also not going to explain something just because I said it in a rap. Take what you want from it.
When I rap, it's just an extension of how I speak, and that's how I talk. If you don't like it, don't listen.
I chose to deal with the underdogs on '1 Train.' I could've got the biggest superstars in the rap game, but why do that when you can let the young boys shine?
Rap actually took root in the Negro community, and then in the Hispanic community, long before it impacted on the larger American community as a whole.
It's a joke to think that anyone is one thing. We're all such complex creatures. But if I'm going to be a poster child for anything, anger's a gorgeous emotion. It gets a bad rap, but it can make great changes happen.
I'm fascinated by rap and by hip-hop. I think there's a lot of poetry in it. There's a lot of anger, a lot of social energy in it. And I think you'd better listen to it pretty carefully, 'cause it's important.
I treat clothing or a piece of jewelry like it was a piece of art, even though people who collect clothes get a bad rap because they're told it's all vanity.
I don't listen to much rap, really. I can rarely listen to a whole record of it, because musically, it's very formulaic, and oftentimes it doesn't have the best hooks on every track.
Look at music: I've always loved hiphop and rap, and now there's this whole progressive movement, with De La Soul and Mos Def, Common. It's some of the best stuff around.
America has a rap sheet. You can't police the world and tell the world how to act when you're just as bad yourself.
I'm not big on rap, to be honest. I just don't get it. It's angry people shouting. I like a song, melodies, people singing.
I go to a lot of stand-up comedy. I find more inspiration from observational stuff than from rap.
Hackney gets a bit of a bad rap, but it's the only place I've ever lived that felt like a community. I know my neighbours.
I know some very political people who rap, and they say very political things and they'll never get a deal.
I didn't ever want to make a rap album. I considered it too limiting. Now that's exactly what I've gone and done.
A lot of singers find a musical genre people like and stick with it. That's being a conformist. I sing ballads, rock, salsa, rap.
I'd like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration. I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun!
That's why I called my record Devil Without a Cause - I'm a white boy who's so sick of hearing that white kids are going to steal rap.
Escapist literature gets a bad rap. But I think escape is important for a lot of people in a lot of places.
I hate the bad rap that people give my parents. Because they are just parents, really, at the end of the day trying to stand up for their daughter and themselves.
You don't want me to sing. I could do a really bad karaoke scene, if I had to, but I'd probably choose to rap.
