Quotes from Aesop Rock

I'm not interested in hearing yet another rapper tell me why he's the best. Why not tell a story set in a specific time and place? Create some characters, add a little bit of action and you're good to go.

Honestly, I don't feel pressure to live up to anything I've done because I tend to not listen to my work once a year passes.

I like to just hear people talking and TV is a quick way to hear different periods and genres. It's just interesting to me. I'm pretty easily amused with that kind of stuff.

I really like 'Game of Thrones.

I went to college, got a job. Not a good job or anything but I was fully set to be an office employee for my life.

To me, it seems more realistic to my thought process when things feel a little scattered in the lyrics. Being disjointed is not that abstract of a thing when I think about how my brain works - I feel like it's almost more realistic. That's how my brain works.

Having some decent musicians around you only expands what you can do production-wise, but I make rap - I can't really see myself doing much else.

Rap music started because they were bored of other music so they created something really new.

I never really planned on being a rapper, I just kinda did it and then people started liking it.

I had written rap songs in the early '90s and even did a couple homemade rap songs with my brother in like '88 or '89, but it was just like... I don't even know how to say it. Just plain rap. I was just rapping about whatever, there was no real style or direction, it was just semi-braggadocious rhymes that probably imitated 100 other rappers.

My brothers each reacted differently to 'Blood Sandwich.' It's a very specific type of odd feeling when there's a song written about you. People react to it differently.

I like feeling warm inside a small home, knowing there's a set of glowing eyes out in the woods somewhere. It's just a vibe I enjoy writing about, and it deals simultaneously with safety and danger.

I was a Kimya fan for a long time, a Moldy Peaches fan, so I got to work on her 'Thunder Thighs' record a little bit and we became friends and just started writing songs.

I've always recorded at home. That's been part of what it's about to me. I've never been the kind of guy who rents a studio.

I know a lot of people who make records, and when you meet them, it's not their personality or they're not what you're expecting. But El-P is exactly what you'd expect.

I love a cool cellphone as much as the next guy, but, god, I hate when it rings.

I don't like to do the same songs every night for a week. I just... it's boring and tiring and frustrating basically.

I just try to reflect the grittiness in New York. I try to protect the grit and the dirt that comes with it, which is a good thing.

I don't really regret much of my music life.

If a song or group hits you at the right time in your life, it's everything. It's bigger than school or family or anything else.

Finding something new that I know I've never done before is the best feeling I know, and when I get there it's all worth it.

I remember when I was younger, I read that Jay-Z was 33 and I was just like, 'Damn! This dudes really still goin for it?' It's just so rare that you see any rapper over 30 doing anything interesting.

I got tired of everybody repeating the same phrases in the hip-hop world.

You think of, like, Justin Timberlake. He does a three-hour performance every night, and it's like, wow, I don't know how that guy does it.