I've been rapping since I was 18 years old, with a crew called Blades.
Writing was something I always did but that turned into singing and rapping. That something that came out of my writing.
I don't even think I'm that good at rapping, but I think what makes a great rapper - what CAN make a great rapper - is someone who wants to be better.
SK La'Flare's a legend. It was me, him and Vince, and Frank would come through sometimes and s - - and he was, like, fully rapping. N - - s was on it.
I would say I started rapping because my friends were doin it.
When I started Fool's Gold and producing consistent records that were like electro beats with rapping on it that was experimental and weird. I made a mixtape called Dirty South Dance where I put rap vocals over dance music. That was literally an experiment. Now all these rappers are rapping on dance music. This is something I've been trying to build for a while.
I was probably just graduating high school, maybe still in high school. When I was still in high school, maybe the last two years, I was rapping but I wasn't telling anybody. When I signed my deal people didn't know it was the same Ryan Montgomery from Oak Park High School, because I used to play basketball and I used to fight. Like I'd bring boxing gloves to school. So when they found out, it was, "You mean Ryan who be boxing?" or, "Ryan who be hopping up at the park?" So I was known as that guy.
I really want to do the unexpected, and I think that's what I did when I executed 'Long. Live. A$AP. ' I wanted people to really see the message and that I'm an artist who not only has the capability of rapping, but of composing great music both for people of my generation and for people with different backgrounds.
Rapping about a surgery is something that makes sense for me to do.
When I was in south Sudan, people used to rap in my village. But the rapping was more in the mother tongue, Nuer.
Not even battling but just really known for rapping. Like I had songs up on Soundclick first, take it back.
I've always been rapping before I was making money off of it. Before I made a profit, I had always been rapping.
When I began rapping, I only had one form at my disposal. All I had, all I needed was a rhyme verse; sixteen bar, thirty-two bar, whatever it was. If I had an idea it came out as a rhyme. When I challenged myself to think beyond that, my first thing other than a rhyme that I wrote was a play.
I'm not really interested in anybody, that's why I started rapping. I'm still a fan of Tupac. That's the only rapper that I'm still like, "Oh! Tupac!"
I would challenge more hip hop artists that are rapping about what it`s like to be real and the social ills that we face, if you aren`t backing Bernie Sanders, I have to question your credibility in terms of do you mean the songs you`re writing.
I got a liberal education. A white guy, rapping as Bugs Bunny, on a quintuple-platinum album.
I'm not rapping, I'm conversing. It's just a conversation between me and you.
Rapping is talking and communicating, and that's always good.
That's what my music. . . I'm working on a solo record right now, it's gonna be more hip-hop than anything, like electronic hip-hop, futuristic hip-hop. I'm probably gonna be rapping on it.
Me rapping over other people's beats doesn't mean as much as when Lil Wayne does it - no matter how hard I'm going in.
