Quotes

I don't like to focus on just hip-hop because with hip-hop, I can only do so much; with a vocalist, I can only do so much, but the limitations are varying.

I want listeners to feel as though they went through an experience.

Having Ghost and Raekwon together on multiple tracks is almost like cheating because they fit so well together. Their chemistry is undeniable, and they clearly make each other better.

It's important to the world to see superheroes that are spread across our demographic.

It's important for a young black kid to see a Mexican hero, just to know that we're all equal.

Luke Cage is seen in 'Jessica Jones,' but he doesn't really come into his own until the 'Luke Cage' series. That's when you really see who he is.

I'm a hip hop dude who loves scoring for film.

Sometimes, a concept is needed to spark myself and the vocalist; sometimes a concept isn't necessary for that spark. It all depends on the moment, because I don't want to be that dude that every album has to be this story or that story.

A lot of people record on a laptop and use plug-ins, which might be OK for the kind of music that they're doing. But for the kind of music that I'm doing, that just doesn't work. I can't cut corners; everything has to be organic.

A lot of Ennio Morricone's music is just - it's very soulful, very cinematic, and very psychedelic.

My studio is fully analog. There's nothing modern. There's not even a computer in my studio.

I always say to people that I left hip-hop in '97, meaning that I departed from listening to predominately hip-hop and just started really getting into records from the late '60s, early '70s. And once I made that change, I realized how much great music was made back in the day, and it started to become apparent how much we've lost in music.

Like with me, like around '97, for Christmas my parents bought me an MPC 2000 sampler and a little eight-track cassette recorder. And I started sampling records and, you know, producing hip-hop beats. And it got to the point where I realized - I innately realized that the music I liked the most was made by people that played instruments.

'Luke Cage' came out in 1972 at the height of the blaxploitation era. It was a literary response to this notion of blaxploitation movies. It was the first time in American culture that Hollywood was embracing black movies.

When Curtis Mayfield made 'Super Fly,' he used the lyric to make a statement.

I was really raised on hip-hop, and hip-hop introduced me basically to all the music I listen to now.

To me, the Ennio Morricone kind of sound is a derivative of soul music.

I tell people, 'I don't make music, I make worlds.'

I'm the black dude that loves old black culture. I also love old white culture. I just love history, but I'm the guy that wants to bring things back and push them forward.

I love the song 'Picasso Baby,' and I think the performance art piece was brilliant. I love that fact that Jay Z is continuing to raise the bar on hip hop.

I have a J.D., but I'm not a practicing attorney as far as entertainment law goes.

I love sampling, and RZA loves sampling, too.

Basically, if you work hard and practice an instrument every day, you'll learn how to play like a professional. You'll get better and better each day. And that's how it works for me. I wasn't magically inclined to play. I had to keep practicing and practicing to train my fingers.

'Luke Cage' is a gift. There's so many different ways you can look at it.

When people make the educated argument that things should go back, it's more like going back to a feeling they had when they heard some of the music that came out. Not going back to that music being rehashed. That's stupid.