There isn't just one black experience out here.
— Prodigy
I can't front: I like Kanye.
The NYPD is just a branch of corruption connected to a giant, corrupt tree called the United States government.
You have to find a sound that reflects what our souls feel like inside, how our bodies actually feel. That's why we made our own beats. We couldn't find a producer who could give us the feeling to match our lyrics.
When you are young and rebellious, you don't want to be in the house. You want to be on the block.
When we signed to G-Unit, 50 made us sign the paper that says, 'You can't talk about nothing about me.' He makes everybody sign that.
A sickle-cell attack would creep up slowly in my ankles, legs, arms, back, stomach, and chest. Sometimes my lips and tongue turned numb, and I knew I was going into a crisis.
I used to be cold and emotionless. I believe the disease I was born with made me that way.
Obama represents one-world government, a.k.a. Neocolonialism. Presidents don't change anything locally - they only deal with foreign policy.
'Dragon's Lair' was real ill.
When I was a kid, I used to love to play 'Dig Dug.' It was, like, this little dude, where he digs in the dirt and makes tunnels.
I'm a big fan of Kurt Cobain. I put a picture of him holding a gun on my Instagram for his birthday. He's definitely one of my favorite rock artists.
That's what 'Hell On Earth' was about: we felt that we were living in hell.
We started writing songs like 'Shook Ones' and 'Survival of the Fittest' explaining our neighborhood, but more our personal lives.
We didn't have any problem with 2Pac. We liked his music.
When I said, 'I'm only 19, but my mind is old' - at that time, when I said that line, I was 18.
I found that preparation is everything when you cook.
Once I started writing, I realized just how much I really enjoyed it. I was kinda good at it, so I kept at it.
Nobody's unique. Everybody copies off of each other. Everybody wears the same type of stuff. Nobody's an individual anymore.
When I was locked up, I went through a big personal change with my attitude and spiritual, everything. I went through some major changes locked up.
I think the sound of 'The Infamous' came naturally from our lifestyle and some of the criminal things we were doing. We always rap about what we're living, and to put a beat to lyrics like those is hard.
I wanna like Obama, but he's all about the world government, world banking, war, and stuff like that. You know what I'm sayin'? He's a phony.
Music and physical activity goes hand in hand. Music and basketball, man.
I was a very serious child who never got to enjoy life to the fullest like a normal, healthy kid.
My favorite Eminem song is probably 'Lose Yourself' because I can relate to it a lot. That's how I feel every time I write a rhyme.
You got a lot of fradulent rebels and revolutionaries who are really false prophets.
'Mortal Kombat' was an ill game. I would always be either Reptile or Scorpion. Those dudes were ill. We used to stay up all night playing.
In the era we came up in, you had to have your own thing.
With Mobb Deep, we have to agree on things. We have to agree that we want to use that beat or agree on the type of song we want to do.
When we first signed to Loud, we had a 20-song demo. So all of those songs we wanted to put on the album. But we started making new ones, and through process of elimination, we wanted all the new ones. We didn't like the old ones no more.
When we were making 'Juvenile Hell,' we were listening to the Jungle Brothers, Big Daddy Kane, Rakim, Biz Markie, A Tribe Called Quest.
At 19, I felt like I was 40.
Just having conversations with God, begging God to make the pain go away, and then the pain wouldn't go away. So I'm like 'Who the hell am I talking to? God is not responding.'
I couldn't afford to get sick in prison. My sickle cell is no joke, so I couldn't eat poorly or not exercise. And everything in jail is designed to do the exact opposite.
I just love his creativity; that's what I'm talking about as far as being unique and creative and different. Kanye is doing it.
People of all races need to come together to control our government and run a giant comb through it so we can see the filth that comes out.
Our style of hip-hop, our style of beats, our style of rhymes - you gonna give us burn. We gonna get our burn that we deserve.
It was the camaraderie and the friendships, too, that really drew me to Queensbridge.
Mobb Deep's music, we represent poverty. That's what made us. That's who made us. That's who brought us up.
All I do is music; that's my sport.
Extreme pain to extreme pleasure has been the story of my entire life.
I have a deadly disease called Sickle Cell Anemia that I was born with that affects millions of others - primarily in the Black and Latino cultures. I feel I can inspire others with this Sickle Cell disease to be strong and believe in themselves.
I don't want fans anymore, because the definition of a fan is a fanatic. The people who buy my product and ride with me are my supporters, not fanatics.
I like any shoot-'em-up game with guns in it.
I'm always vocal about people being unique and different in hip-hop.
All the 'Scarface' beats that you hear Mobb Deep sample, that was my idea.
When my family first moved to Hempstead in the 1960s, they were one of the first black families. It used to be an all-white neighborhood, but there was white flight when the black people with money started moving in. When I was, like, 13 or 14, Hempstead had just become all black, and the poverty became worse and worse.
I just remember the feeling of being dropped from Island and having our hearts broken. Because we were given a chance to put out an album to the world. We got the chance for people to know who we were. We wanted to make our dreams come true and do hip-hop for a living, but we didn't do it right.
In my lyrics, I used to always state two years ahead. I did that to make it seem like we were ahead of our time - a time capsule almost. It had never been done before.
You have people there from all walks of life: people who made mistakes and have to deal with the consequences, mothers and fathers. You wouldn't expect them to be behind bars.
