A biography for Big Daddy Kanehasn’t been written yet.
“R&B stations don't say 'We have old school artist Ronald Isley in the house.' They say 'We have the legendary Ronald Isley.' But if I come do an interview, they're gonna say 'We have old school rapper Big Daddy Kane in the house.' We belittle ourselves, our music and our culture. It's hard for a lot of legendary artists in hip-hop to overcome.”
“I love old school music, that's just always been my thing.”
“I just think it was because I was known as a lyricist that's what people only wanted to hear that from me. If you're an artist you have to expand, you have to grow.”
“I think that all lives matter, but I think that the reason we say Black Lives Matter is because, for some reason, it seems like there's a lot of people in America that don't realize that we want to be treated as equal as police treat a white person that gets pulled over.”
“I totally understand, believe in, and support Black Lives Matter.”
“I was going to different neighborhoods around Brooklyn battling cats back in - this started in '82, so that's like eighth grade. Maybe 13, 14.”
“I got to meet and work with Barry White, Quincy Jones, Patti LaBelle, even.”
“I watch a lot of the YouTube battles: Goodz, Loaded Lux, I'm into stuff like that.”
“I love when big things happen for Brooklyn.”
“Yeah, if you go too far, like there's some rappers that use words that just be a little too out there, it makes it where someone doesn't really know what you're talking about and don't really have the time to sit and try to understand.”
“Now if you call 'Ain't No Half-Steppin' ' or 'Raw' an old-school song, I agree with you. But if you call Big Daddy Kane an old-school artist, I disagree with you.”
“I was a big fan of Marvin Gaye, and when my parents were at work, I would get in front of the mirror, put my father's clothes on and pretend I was singing Marvin Gaye songs.”
“Shame is something that's man-made.”
“Think that I started taking emceeing very serious probably from the very beginning. Because I started as a battle rapper. It was something that I was doing hoping that I could hang with my older cousin.”
“I believe that music is infinite.”
“I think that when it comes to emceeing that there's so many different approaches. You have your party rappers, which pretty much is where it all originated from. With DJ Hollywood, Lovebug Starski, Eddie Cheeba, and all those guys in the '70s. Basic party rap.”
“You never hear a country-western station saying 'We have old school artist Willie Nelson in the house.' They say 'We have the legendary Willie Nelson.'”
“I think that Kool Moe Dee birthed Rakim, Rakim birthed Nas.”
“I've always called Puff like the greatest promotion person in this world - for himself and for his artists - better than anybody I've ever seen in my life.”
“I feel that in the music industry there are so many artists it's easy to be forgotten because it's so cluttered.”