For me the music is a vehicle for my lyrics. It's a chance to get some really good words across.
I write music all the time. When I talk about having writer's block, it's more to do with lyrics than anything else
I have to decide whether I'm just laying down a groove, kind of a bed and canvas for the lyrics and music to live on, or trying to illustrate something in the lyrics.
When I was growing up, I didn't really know much about being popular or cliques or anything like that. In elementary school and middle school, you start to kind of realize what it's all about. There are cool kids, and then there's you, and you're just trying to figure out where you fit in. I learned a lot about acceptance and rejection,Those are the themes that you'll find spread throughout my music and weaved in throughout all of the lyrics. I really know what it's like to be accepted, and I also know what it's like to be rejected. And those are lessons I learned in Wyomissing.
We all love to sing along with our favorite songs. We sing in the car, in the shower, and at the karaoke bar. The problem is that half the time we don't know what we're singing. We're making up lyrics as we go along and hoping no one will notice.
Do I start with the lyrics? No. Quite honestly, it's the opposite. I generally get the melody first - I kinda fiddle around on the guitar and work out a melody. The lyrics are there to flesh out the tone of the music. I've tried before to do things the other way around, but it never seems to work. Obviously, I spend a lot of time on my lyrics, I take them very seriously, but they're kinda secondary. Well, equal, maybe. I think sometimes that if you write a poem, it should remain as just a poem, just. . . words.
I try not get too self-aware when writing lyrics.
I want to say my life inspires my lyrics, but I also try to abstract them as much as possible because I don't want to refer to my life explicitly. I'm definitely really embarrassed by my lyrics.
I actually find a lot of pleasure in writing lyrics.
I get the music, I get the beats. And I go to the studios and write the lyrics.
Anyone who wants to know who I am can just read my lyrics - I've always written about who I am.
If I just gave you a piece of paper with the lyrics written down on it, it would mean something to you. It would tell you a story.
When I see other rappers' lyrics of "I don't do what I don't like to do", I feel like it's really cool and there's also an envious side to me about it.
I like to write my lyrics on clay tablets.
Grace Kelly was written after these musicians were trying to mold me into what I should be. I was really angry and so I wrote the song and mailed them the lyrics. They didn't call me back, but two years later it's come full circle.
I love lyrics. They help me to figure things out.
The problem isn’t with rock lyrics, it’s with the fabric of this society itself.
When you're happy you enjoy the music, but when you're sad you understand the lyrics.
Sex, death and war. And justice. There's no shortage of lyrics there.
In whatever form it takes, life sings because it has a song. The meaning is in the lyrics.