Jadakiss

“My mom had wild records, like Luther Vandross, Michael Jackson and the Whispers. But the first record I bought was 'Rapper's Delight.' It had a sky-blue cover with a rainbow. My aunt gave me money to get it, and I played it over and over on the record player.”

“Controversy sells, politics sell, all that type of stuff sells.”

“The top five producers that I have a creative chemistry with are Swizz Beatz, The Alchemist, Vinny Idol, Pharrell and Timbaland.”

“Sonically, you gotta experiment sometimes.”

“Battling is therapeutic for Hip Hop, but you can't take it serious. I mean, you got to take it because when you're preparing your material for your opponent but when it affects your heart or when you let it get too personal... you got to have fun with it.”

“I encourage young artists to learn the business.”

“A healthy lifestyle is the only lifestyle.”

“One of the catches with being a dope artist is saying the same exact thing a trillion different ways, and being able to get across somehow differently every time. The way to express maturity and growth and evolution is to do that throughout the music.”

“You can't mix your personal feelings up with your job or it'll hurt you in the long run.”

“A lot of dudes have success, overnight success or one-year success but not many have ten, fifteen, twenty in this game so when you can do that is when I look up to you.”

“My pops got his own coffee company. My pop distributes coffee.”

“I like Young Thug. A lot of people might think I don't like Thug. I listen to Thug more than I listen to a lot of them. You got to listen to the music and absorb it. Some people might see him on the centerfold or something and just automatically judge him. You got to listen.”

“You have to give the crowd energy to feed off of and they will give it back. If you go on stage acting sluggish and nonchalant, that's how the crowd will be. But if you let them know you appreciate them and do call and response, you'll get a good reception.”

“Some people can only freestyle, some people can only make certain types of songs. I can do it all.”

“Things die down when you let them die down.”

“Well, my family used to live in Atlanta a few years back so I always had a good relationship with all the artists down there, as well as artists from Houston and Memphis, before the South took over, I was already like a family member of the South so there's always love.”

“I see a lot of dudes that don't take care of their families. I always said I wouldn't never be like that.”

“You can't be a sore loser or a sore fan.”

“Kids give you their most honest opinion and that's a beautiful thing. They don't care about hurting your feelings, they're just getting their point across whether they like it or not and sometimes you need that.”

“If you've got the power of the streets and the people, anything can happen and good music will always come to the top.”