Jadakiss

“My mom and pop took me to the Apollo Theater on my thirteenth birthday to see Heavy D and Keith Sweat. It was late at night, up on 125th Street, and it was crazy!”

“I don't need the big accolades when I die. Hit me with a couple good little ones: Kiss, one of the best voices in rap history.”

“Having Styles and Sheek as my brothers and my partners makes it easier to work with anybody 'cause that's the bar of bars right there. Being in the sandwich of them two, you can throw me in the cage with lions and I'll feel comfortable because everyday I'm at bloodsport with them.”

“I had one of those tape players with a strap on it and the orange button - the old-school recorder - and I'd record songs by Roxanne Shante, Run-D.M.C. and Biz, Markie. I'd try and learn the words. I've been rhyming since I was a young fella. I used to win talent shows by break dancing and rapping.”

“Your fans grow as you grow, it's best you grow together.”

“It's important for Black and Latino men to go to the doctor in general. We don't get checked up enough unless something hurts or we feel a lump or something like that.”

“You can be a video vixen and be snobby, or you can be a college girl and be snobby, or you can be vice versa and down-to-earth. It depends really on the personality of the individual. I don't judge.”

“To be critically acclaimed, to get a Grammy, to be on MTV, you gotta talk about current events. You gotta talk about controversy, just stuff people want to hear. At the same time, you gotta get a message across.”

“It's hard to make a career.”

“I would tell a young Jadakiss, learn the game as much as you learn how to rap, as seriously you take a 16-bar verse, take every contract and every meeting and every opportunity to listen and learn, you know what I'm saying. Keep that at a parallel.”

“Learn the business as much as you can before you sign anything.”

“I don't think people educate themselves enough.”

“There's a lot of one-hit wonders and a lot of come-and-go artists and even the labels give up on you after a couple years.”

“A father figure is setting the blueprint, the model, the standard, the way for you to become a man and take on the world for yourself.”

“My track record - the bars, the delivery, the flow and the voice - makes Jadakiss top five dead or alive.”

“After getting off Bad Boy and then finally getting on with the Ruff Ryders/Interscope deal, it was like being able to exhale. The studio sessions were a lot different than the Bad Boy studio sessions. Like, we were able to just do anything we want.”

“Diddy was trying to squeeze the life out of me. I felt like I don't wanna keep giving him my bars. Cause he's taking from my tank. I need all of these bars.”

“I give you everything you want as an artist, for so long. Consistency. Wordplay. Wittiness. You can check the checklist. Only thing I don't check off on is album sales.”

“The song 'Why' was always in my head. Three or four years, I always wanted to do a song called 'Why' and just ask wild questions. And I guess, strategically, after the 9/11 thing, it worked.”

“It's definitely a beautiful thing to have a little trademark or something that sets you out from everybody else.”