“What I learned in jail is that I can’t change. I can’t live a different lifestyle – this is it. This is the life that they gave and this is the life that I made.”

“I’m a reflection of the community.”

“We all gonna die, we bleed from similar veins.”

“I’d rather die like a man, than live like a coward.”

“I feel like role models today are not meant to be put on a pedestal. But more like angels with broken wings.”

“My mama always used to tell me: ‘if you can’t find somethin’ to live for, you best find somethin’ to die for.’”

“If God wanted me to be quiet he would’ve never showed me what he does.”

“I’ll probably be punished for hard living.”

“I am society’s child. This is how they made me and now I’m sayin’ what’s on my mind and they don’t want that. This is what you made me, America.”

“Though things change, the future’s still inside of me.”

“I don’t have no fear of death. My only fear is coming back reincarnated.”

“I’m 23 years old. I might just be my mother’s child, but in all reality, I’m everybody’s child. Nobody raised me; I was raised in this society.”

“There’s nobody in the business strong enough to scare me.”

“In my mind I’m a blind man doin’ time.”

“With all my fans I got a family again.”

“I believe that everything that you do bad comes back to you. So everything that I do that’s bad, I’m going to suffer from it. But in my mind, I believe what I’m doing is right. So I feel like I’m going to heaven.”

“Of course I’m going to say “I’m a thug,” that’s because I came from the gutter and I’m still here!”

“I’ve been shot five times but I’m still breathing, living proof there a God if you need a reason.”

“I don’t want to be a role model. I just want to be someone who says, this is who I am, this is what I do, I say what’s on my mind.”

“If we really are saying that rap is an art form, then we got to be more responsible for our lyrics. If you see everybody dying because of what you are saying, it don’t matter that you didn’t make them die. It just matters that you didn’t save them.”

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside while still alive. Never surrender.”

“I’m not sayin’ I’m gonna rule the world, or that I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

“That which does not kill me can only make me stronger. I don’t see why everybody feel as though that they gotta tell me how to live my life.”

“Forgive but don’t forget, girl keep your head up. And when he tells you you ain’t nothing, don’t believe him. And if he can’t learn to love you, you should leave him.”

“Can’t close my eyes cause all I see is terror. I hate the man in the mirror cause his reflection makes the pain turn realer.”

“Fear is stronger than love, remember that. Fear is stronger than love. All that love I gave didn’t mean nothing when it came to fear.”

“One day I’m gonna bust, blow up on this society. Why did you lie to me? I couldn’t find a trace of equality.”

“Every day, I’m standing outside trying to sing my way in: We are hungry, please let us in We are hungry, please let us in. After about a week that song is gonna change to: We hungry, we needsome food. After two, three weeks, it’s like: Give me the food Or I’m breaking down the door. After a year you’re just like: I’m picking the lock. Coming through the door blasting.”

“I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought ‘thug life’ to America. I didn’t create ‘thug life;’ I diagnosed it.”

“If I was white, I would be like John Wayne. I feel like a tragic hero in a Shakespeare play. Somebody who pulled himself up by his bootstraps, from poverty.”

“Behind every sweet smile, there is a bitter sadness that no one can see and feel.”

“I said, I’m gonna write a song about the women like my mom, women like my sister, who I think represent the strong black women, and I did that. Now I’mma write about the women I see everyday and that was ‘[I] Get Around.’ If I just write songs like ‘Keep Ya Head Up’ it would make me seem more than what I am, but I’m just a normal man.”

“What makes me saying ‘I don’t give a f***,’ different from Patrick Henry saying ‘Give me liberty or give me death?’ What makes my freedom any different than Bosnians or who ever [America] wants to fight for this year? They should give money to the ghetto.”

“Don’t live to fight, fight to live.”

“Hip Hop when it started it was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music. Now it seems like I was starting to get caught up in the mode of what made hip hop come about. As long as the music has the true to the heart soul it can be hip hop. As long it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.”

“Why can’t [the President] take some of those people off the street and put them in his White House? Then he’ll have people from the street to help him with his ideas. They haven’t been homeless forever; they’ve done things for society.”

“I want to grow. I want to be better. You grow. We all grow. We’re made to grow. You either evolve or you disappear.”

“Until it happened, I really did believe that no Black person would ever shoot me. I believed that I didn’t have to fear my own community, You know, I was like I represent them. I’m their ambassador to the world, they will never do me wrong.”

“Every time I speak I want the truth to come out. Every time I speak I want a shiver. I don’t want them to be like they know what I’m gonna say because it’s polite. I’m not saying I’m gonna rule the world or I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee you that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

“I set goals, take control, drink out my own bottle. I make mistakes but learn from every one. And when it’s said and done, I bet this brother be a better one. If I upset you don’t stress; never forget, that God isn’t finished with me yet.”

“If you let a person talk long enough you’ll hear their true intentions! Listen twice, speak once.” -Tupac Shakur

“We can never go nowhere unless we share with each other.”

“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened…or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the f*** on.”

“Never surrender, it’s all about the faith you got; don’t ever stop, just push it ‘till you hit the top and if you drop, at least you know you gave your all to be true to you, that way you can never fail.”

“The same crime element that white people are scared of black people are scared of. While they waiting for legislation to pass, we next door to the killer. All them killers they let out, they’re in that building. Just because we black, we get along with the killers? What is that?”

“Even the genius asks questions.”

“I shall not fear man but God, though I walk through the valley of death.”

“I am not a perfectionist, but still I seek perfection. I am not a great romantic, but yet I yearn for affection.”

“Even warriors put their spears down on Sundays.”

“There’s no way I could pay you back but my plan is to show you that I understand, you are appreciated.”