When you grow up in that environment of drugs and guns and people gettin' hurt, it start to reflect your background. And I think, at that time when I was doin' it, that's all I knew. But as I got older in the business, I stopped bein' involved with that, and I started to look at the world. And I said, 'Yo, I wanna start talkin' about everything that goes on in the world. I don't wanna just limit myself to one style'.
RaekwonSometimes you can make a substantial amount of money and automatically think that you've made it, that you did everything you wanted to do. Some people just stop.
RaekwonYou know, I'm a product of my environment, gettin' into everything you know a kid my age would get into, a lot of negativity was surroundin' me. And we came, sat up and had a discussion about makin' a record, I think I was more or less overwhelmed with just that fact.
RaekwonGrowing up in music motivated me. I applied that to my education and it made me a better person.
RaekwonI love the energy that comes when I get on the mic. It keeps me creative and I love to hear what the fans want, what they love or hate about it.
RaekwonYou know the steez; you know my whole program. Brothers from the No-Lands, all we want is the G's guns and grams.
RaekwonBefore I think we was emcees, we was more or less narrators too. Because if you look at the early '80s hip hop, it was so much creativity goin' on with artists like then, like Slick Rick, then you had Rakim, and you had these different kind of artists back then. And we was a marble cake of all these artists. So I didn't have a problem with writin' stories because I felt like that was somethin' I loved to do. Even to this day, I really consider myself an entertainer-slash-narrator. I like to talk about stuff that goes on.
Raekwon