Lecrae

“A lot of times, when you don't have to deal with some of the circumstances that affect minority culture, you just don't think they exist. This is a conversation I have with lots of my white friends all the time.”

“Growing up in inner-city neighborhoods, there's a particular structure, which I'm sure is true of most social contexts. The type of person you are determines the role you play.”

“You take the negative, the bitter, the pain, the suffering, the depression, and all of those are ingredients for something far more purposeful than you can imagine.”

“No matter how bad you mess up, God loves you, and there's nothing you can do about it.”

“My stepdad didn't have a father growing up, so he didn't know how to have a father-son style conversation. Plus, we had a tense relationship in which he never really offered me advice.”

“Lecrae is not just, you know, church, church, church.”

“When you have legends who want to do music with you, and you befriend the Kendrick Lamars and the Chance the Rappers, that's due to you really being authentically hip-hop and not being contemporary Christian.”

“I know I'm wonderfully made, and nobody can take that away from me. So regardless of what I show you or expose to you, you don't have any bearing on my worth and what I mean.”

“I'm in a very comfortable place, and some of that comes from the shackles of not having to be what people want you to be.”

“A girl invited me to come out to a Bible study, and I said, 'Why not? I don't have anything to lose.' I went, and to my surprise, I saw people that loved God, but they were not square or rigid. They were just people like me.”

“As children, we look up to people, for better or worse, and see them as the standard for how we should act and identify ourselves.”

“Pain can be a haunting reminder to appreciate every waking moment.”

“As we wrestle with questions of identity, we imitate those actions we think best fill an ambiguity we have within ourselves. And that goes for everyone; no one is free from this condition.”

“The biggest accolades aren't the Grammys for me. It's creating opportunities for people.”

“There's a line between being egotistical and being genius or great.”

“Christianity is the truth about everything. If you say you have a Christian worldview, that means you see the world through that lens - not just how people get saved and what to stay away from.”

“I try to produce music that is life-giving and inspires people to hope, but it isn't just for the super-religious. I want to address themes that people who aren't Christian can appreciate.”

“It is possible to call God 'Lord,' to feel emotionally connected to faith, to do the altruistic things and still not want God.”

“Honestly, the pains of humanity have been draining me.”

“Hang out with me long enough, and I'm bound to let you down.”