I've been able to provide for my family, move out of Harlem and travel the world.
— Dave East
Deep down in my heart and what I've seen and what I've been around, there is nothing better than Islam.
I was incarcerated for a little while in Baltimore, and my celly was Muslim. I was watching him pray every day, and his outlook on getting out of that situation was a lot more positive than the other dudes that were Muslim in the jail.
I think what sets a New York rapper apart from other rappers from other places is just being from New York.
People don't get signed by Def Jam every day on my block.
I was with Mass Appeal solely for almost two years.
I want to be one of the greats. I feel like the money and all that is going to come, but I want to be a name that, like, when you say Nas or Jay Z, that's forever.
I just value my family's opinion as far as my music goes because that's the ones that really know you.
Since the '80s, Harlem has the place to go. Before the '80s, just as far as hip-hop go, Harlem has always been a strong point, fashion-wise, music-wise, all of that.
I wanna be in a movie, I wanna have a clothing line, I wanna put myself in a position where, when I'm dead and gone, or I can't rap anymore, that's still moving. Tupac and Biggie, they've been dead 10-plus years and people talk about them everyday. I'm gonna try to speak everything into existence. I know the music is my key to get there.
My father brought a basketball to the hospital when I was born, and he already had it embedded in his head that I would be a ball player.
I always had a gift with writing. I can really write. I always felt like I can write movies or somehow get into that.
I feel like rap fit me better. I could hoop. I could have went and did that, but this is my lifestyle, my temperament, my mentality.
Wu-Tang was going through it. They didn't come from great homes or families. They really came from hard beginnings so it just made me reflect on my own situation. If Wu-Tang was able to make it, why can't I?
You always hear rappers say they don't write, but they're not really talking about anything.
I think R. Kelly is twisted, sick-minded, nasty, perverted - he different. I don't know anybody like R. Kelly.
I feel like I've mastered Dave East. For a long time I was trying to figure out who I was and what sound I wanted to come with.
A lot of creativity coming from the east side of Harlem. It really built my character and who I am.
Islam has a negative outlook on it around the world based on what the media tries to show. They not showing the peace.
The fashion and the rap go hand in hand with New York City.
I'm still an athlete at heart, so I always want that comfort and something that feels like an athletic shoe.
I write all my own music, everything.
Nas really introduced the world and a lot of people to me - that was ideal as far as me first coming in.
I think my music is more personal than most of the music I'm hearing.
No matter how dope you are, if you ain't really built, if you ain't put that groundwork in, you gonna flop. Nobody gonna fill those arenas.
It took mad failures for me to start to win.
I want to put out music that everyday people can relate to.
I want to eventually get to a point where I can make all types of music for every type of crowd.
I watch movies all day. I am a heavy movie head.
When I go back to my hood, Queens, Brooklyn, or here in L.A., the people that's not famous, that's what inspires me.
If you're a fan of anything I do, I'm always telling a story. I'm into that - I like it when you don't know if it was true or not.
I'm never gonna sell my soul or violate myself for no amount of dollars or fame.
I want a son.
Nobody uses skits at all anymore, so it seems like I use a lot. That's how I grew up on tapes. Biggie tapes, Biggie albums would have skits. The Lox would have skits. Mase would have skits. All the dudes I grew up on in Nineties rap would have skits on their projects, just to make you feel like you were right there with them.
Spanish Harlem is like every ghetto in America. There's every distraction possible. To make it up out of there is really a task itself.
Islam really brought a discipline to my life that I didn't really have before. My old mindset was if they ain't helping me, I ain't helping them, but you can't live life that way.
Where I'm from in Harlem, everybody look like a rapper.
I wouldn't tell nobody to sign no slave deal or sign your life away or nothing like that, but if the deal is right and if it benefits you, you'd be a fool if you did not take advantage of it.
I feel like a lyricist is somebody that writes their own lyrics. Now songwriters and lyricists are two totally different things. You can't really be a lyricist if you didn't write your lyrics. There's no passion, there's nothing in it coming from you. It's somebody else's feelings and you just taking it and running with it.
When I'm dead, gone or whatever, people will always remember my name and the music I did during my time.
My standout moment I would have to say was when 'Black Rose' dropped and getting the co-sign from Nas and The LOX. I would say all those moments together were crazy for me.
I never thought I'd be sitting across the table with the owner of Hennessy.
I am not going to lie - my looks helped me.
I always wanted to do something I knew I could love to wake up and do every day, and rap was just second nature to me, growing up in Harlem. I never really had to try.
Growing up in Harlem, I was always in the parks playing ball.
You're born a certain way, but you don't gotta die like that.
I got it tatted on me, ‘born broke, die rich.'
Everybody knows I smoke, drink, and be up in the club, but I don't want that to be my entire thing. I want them to see me get up and go to the gym after a night of clubbing.
I'm not feeling R. Kelly. And I got a daughter, so I'm super not jacking R. Kelly at all.
I never felt like 'I'm an underground dude' or 'I can only be hot in New York.'
