110+ Rakim Quotes On Religion, God And Education

Rakim is an American rapper, widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential MCs of all time. He rose to fame in the late 1980s as half of the legendary hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim. His unique lyrical style, incorporating internal rhymes and complex metaphors, revolutionized hip hop lyricism and helped to bring it to a new level of artistic sophistication. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Rakim on religion, god, education.

Top 10 Rakim Quotes

1. Take 7 emcees put em in a line And add 7 more brothers who think they can rhyme It'll take 7 more before I go for mine And that's 21 emcees ate up at the same time.
2. I start to think, and then I sink Into the paper like I was ink When I'm writing, I'm trapped in between the lines I escape when I finish the rhyme.
3. I'm just an addict, addicted to music Maybe it's a habit...I gotta use it.
4. Timeless, so age don't count in the booth When your flow stay submerged in the fountain of youth
5. So I start my mission- leave my residence Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents
6. I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine. But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?
7. I wake you up and as I stare in your face, you seem stunned. Remember me? The one you got your idea from?
8. I love listening to old records to keep nostalgic feeling; it allows me to not lose the love for hip-hop.
9. I ain't no joke, I used to let the mic smoke, Now I slam it when I'm done and make sure it's broke.
10. It's a bold statement but I think people need to read between the lines.

Rakim Short Quotes

• I try to keep myself out of the unnecessary bullshit.
• The older I get the wiser and more skillful I get.
• The mind is one of Allah's best designs.
• Self-esteem makes me super, superb and supreme
• Tried to put shame in my game to make a name, I'mma put it on a bullet...put it in your brain.
• I can take a phrase that's rarely heard/Flip it - now it's a daily word
• You can hear the seven sins Blowin' through the ghetto wind.
• Now life is imitating art.
• I saw a lot when I was young. The first time I got arrested I was twelve years old.
• I don't work out too much. I just do some pushups when I feel the right hook is getting a lil weak.

Rakim Quotes About Love

My moms is strictly Christian but once I got knowledge of self and started reading she used to love when I would sit there and tell her some of the things that I learned. It gave her an open mind to where she started believing in the most high. — Rakim

When I go out I get so much love I gotta change my way of thinking. — Rakim

I loved the hood and still love the hood but I had to realize like Ra you a rapper now you're in the public eye. — Rakim

My whole thing is if it wasn't for people like ya'll and people like them I wouldn't be me. I love every minute of it. — Rakim

I love to see when people are real passionate about what they feel and what they say. — Rakim

Sometimes I can't believe half of the love that I get. — Rakim

I think rap was a better move for me but football's been my love since I learned how to walk. I was gonna be a running back or quarterback. That was my life. That was it but things happen for a reason. I wouldn't trade this in for nothing. — Rakim

I always had deep respect for my peoples 'cause of the love they gave me and the know how that they showed me through the years. — Rakim

Rakim Famous Quotes And Sayings

Back in the day, music imitated life. Now it's the opposite way around: life is imitating music. It's like whatever the rappers say, people think that that's how we're supposed to be; but back then, we kind of looked at the streets, and we made music for that. — Rakim

Everything derives from the mind. From sex to the way you want people to perceive you to anything in life, it all derives from the mind. If people start realizing this and get deeper into themselves they'll realize there's nothing that they can't do. — Rakim

I go to Queens for queens to get the crew from Brooklyn, Make money in Manhattan and never been tooken. Go Uptown and the Bronx to boogie down, Get strong on the Island, recoup, and lay around. — Rakim

So all hail the honorable, microphone phenomenal Persona is unbombable? Trust me son, I continue like a saga do, bringin' you the drama to allow you that the chronicle has just begun. — Rakim

I've always tried to insert consciousness and spirituality in my records, interpreting the writings of all cultures and religions and how they apply to life in modern times. — Rakim

I always had an intelligence with me, I was always in the streets, I was always trying to do good. I was always looking for something to guide me. In the beginning church wasn't it. — Rakim

I had a little more freedom when I started sampling because you could actually do what you wanted to do. — Rakim

I got one of the illest crews in NY but when I travel it's mostly me and my girl, me and my kids or me and one or two of my dudes but the majority of the time its just me. — Rakim

Now I got kids and I'm more wise now. Life means more to me than having fun. I'm more calm, more wise, and more cautious. — Rakim

A lot of times when people listen to music it's because they feel down, and that's when serious hip-hop comes into play. When times is hard, people can hear a rapper that inspires them to do what they [are] supposed to do. — Rakim

What I want to do right now is give hip hop back to the hood. Before it was a neighborhood thing where it belonged to the hood and the rappers were reporting and there were rules and parameters. Now it seems like the artist's game. — Rakim

There's so many different ways to write a rhyme its stupid man. I don't understand why the majority of the rap game sounds the same. — Rakim

Man is symbolic to the sun. The sun is dealing with a ball of fire and didn't go out yet. Me being symbolic to the sun, that's what keeps me going, that's like my hunger. That's like my fury, my self esteem. That's the elements within me that keep my body motionable. The fire is self esteem. Inner strength. — Rakim

I don't accept that the new generation is looking for anything different than what we've always been looking for. Depending on the moment, they want bangers that make them crack their neck, they want tracks that put them in a zone where they can sit back and chill. — Rakim

There's things in the Bible when you read the Quran there different wordings. The Quran is dealing with the Most High and the Bible is dealing with God. If they read them both and put it together they'll know what the true culture is. — Rakim

When you're trying to please both sides of the fence at the same time you really can't do that. — Rakim

I never tried to crossover or be in the public's eye everyday. I'm laid back with it and at times I wondered if I was doing the right thing promoting myself staying back a little bit and coming out when I felt that I had too. But when I get all the accolades and hear the things people say it just puts it all together for me man. It's a blessing. — Rakim

I've always been a picky eater but I'm not the healthiest eater. — Rakim

It is what it is but I do me and I think people respect that. They see me out in the hood by myself or with wifey and I don't have no bodyguards. — Rakim

Go to the club or go to the block or go hang out and things start coming. — Rakim

I don't want to put nobody on blast but in the beginning it's like somebody telling you somebody looks like you and you've been looking in the mirror your whole life and nobody looks like you. Same thing with me. — Rakim

Not follow me but follow the lyrics. — Rakim

I used to roll up: this is a hold up, ain't nuthin funny. Stop smiling, be still, don't nuthin move but the money. — Rakim

That's another thing yo rappers are scared to bring new styles out. There's so many different ways we can be flowing but everybody chooses to flow the generic way. — Rakim

It 's amazing how Allah made the mind to the point where we almost alike me and you, we almost see the same. But we got different aspects of things. Certain things are what they call common sense. Allah made it like that meaning there's only one mind, be we all occupy it. Some of us dig into it a little deeper. Some of us are lazy on it. There's only one right and one wrong. — Rakim

The physical was never the best part of the body. — Rakim

Some of you been trying to write rhymes for years, But weak ideas irritate my ears. Is this the best that you can make? Cause if not, and you got more...I'll wait. — Rakim

My son plays football so I coach a couple of his teams. My youngest son just started playing last year and I assistant coached for one of his teams. I try to be there as much as I can. I also want to kill the stereotype. I want them to respect me as a man and a father first and then if you like hip hop go buy my album. — Rakim

When I hear my first album today I hear myself reading my rhymes but I'm my worst critic. — Rakim

You have to learn how to take an allowance. — Rakim

You gotta let the fans shine their glory the way they want. It's like I have a million bosses and my job is to make them happy. — Rakim

Sometimes I look at new artists trying to come out or trying to make their name and it's like they're coming into the game blind. They don't really know what the world is going to expect from them and they really trying to get in where they fit in but me I almost got the red carpet. — Rakim

Whenever I write a song I see the whole song anyway. — Rakim

Rappers are separated. — Rakim

Feed me hip-hop and I start tremblin' — Rakim

I started studying in '85 and got knowledge of self and started spitting. What was going on was taking the understanding of what I was reading and applying it with my life and applying it with my rhymes. — Rakim

Now it seems like hip hop belongs to the people you see in the videos and radios. So I want to give it bring it back to the hood, make a statement for NY to put us back in our proper perspective, and of course let them know that Ra still spits fire. — Rakim

Hopefully the rappers can start to open the eyes in the neighborhoods and communities. — Rakim

Before I started rapping and touring I weighed about 160. But by going on the road every night eating fast food, performing every night, partying and drinking I started gaining weight immediately. — Rakim

If anybody can make a change it's the rappers. — Rakim

I feel that when we leave here I think it's just another transition and whatever it is I hope I'm prepared for it. — Rakim

I'm not a flamboyant artist. — Rakim

What was once easy became confused and hard, which brings us back to the mystic question, who is God? — Rakim

I think half of our life is written out for us and things happen the way their supposed to happen. — Rakim

I'm one dude and when I make my bed I lay in it but don't stereotype me. Never sold a crumb to this day and I don't do nothing on the side. — Rakim

It might sound crazy but you put your money up and take out a little every week. You put yourself on a salary instead of getting $7,000 this week, $20,000 next week and $5,000 the week after that. Take a $1,000. You got your toys, you got everything and your money under your mattress. Break it down and have a salary to take care of you and your family and stretch that money. — Rakim

I always tried to manage my money smart. — Rakim

Keep your guns on and don't let anybody tell you how to load your guns or bust ya guns. — Rakim

I think things are gonna change. I'm gonna take the age limit off of hip hop. — Rakim

I've always been a fan of hip hop and there are cats out there that I admire. — Rakim

I don't work out too much and it's wild because it bugs me out. — Rakim

I get the Martian look all the time even in the hood. I walk down to the shopping block and people just look at me with their mouth open man like what are you doing out here and I'm like I'm trying to get a pair of sneakers duke what's good? What are you doing [and I'm like] I'm hungry I wanted some juice and I needed some bread. — Rakim

Back then all I cared about was rhyming and making beats. That was my trade, my hobby. — Rakim

As far as our physical form, the mind is a great temple. But it has a life span and it dies. — Rakim

I go up in the supermarkets and people always go what are you doing here and I go I'm hungry in a sarcastic but nice way just to let them know yo I'm human too man. — Rakim

Even when I was out on tour I used to fly home on the weekends to be with my girl and be with my family to see my kids grow up and just be there for them. When they started going to school it was like that too whether it was homework or if I have to go up to the school I was there. — Rakim

Stay wise and the mind is untouchable. — Rakim

A lot of the things that go on we can avoid some of it. — Rakim

Every time I sit down and write I got to put something conscious in there. It's like I got a job now. They say that for those that know you got to deal in equality. If you know and you don't speak on it and don't apply it, it's like you're the worst hypocrite. I feel I got a job to do, being that I study so much and I believe in Allah like I do, I feel like I got to spread the word. — Rakim

There is still consciousness in hip hop. — Rakim

Sometimes people say yo do you think rap changed you. No doubt it changed me. If I wasn't making records I'd still be hanging every night. — Rakim

I never really liked the idea of doing mixtapes but at the same time it was a big thing a lot of people were doing it and it almost got to the point where if you didn't touch the mixtape circuit it was like you didn't care. — Rakim

When you come out the streets. I ain't braggin'. I never sold drugs but I kept a joint on me. I got arrested plenty of times back when I was a juvenile. Not saying I was a bad ass. I was a juvenile coming' out to the city, to do MC conventions that Mike & Dave was doing. I had to hold myself down. Now I put the gat up. I chill. I pay more attention to life. — Rakim

Every time someone come out with an album don't change the whole style up but don't do what they are expecting. Surprise them. — Rakim

Sometimes I feel I'm the luckiest rapper in the world. — Rakim

When you come in the building with your guns don't take them off. — Rakim

When you get to know your self, you get to know everyone and everything on the planet. — Rakim

Hopefully we get back to the raw essence of hip hop again. — Rakim

Thinkin' of a master plan Cause ain't nothin' but sweat inside my hand. — Rakim

I see my pops everyday and that's what I wanted. — Rakim

I never went to college. I think about it a lot. I can't watch a game without thinking where I would have been if I had ga head and went to college and pursued my career. — Rakim

I don't try to go to the studio and make a single. I just do whatever I feel. — Rakim

I just try to do me and stay out of harms way. — Rakim

You can look in a book of wrong and learn more right. If you're reading a book that has all wrong in it , you're learning what not to do. — Rakim

When I write I get to the point where I slow down and I gotta go back into the world and live nahmean. — Rakim

I just try to eat as good as possible. — Rakim

I'm everlastin, I can go on for days and days With rhyme displays that engrave deep as X-rays I can take a phrase that's rarely heard, FLIP IT Now it's a daily word — Rakim

I always gave my moms and pops the utmost respect. I didn't talk back to my peoples. The way they presented themselves to us, we knew. Don't talk back to moms and pops. — Rakim

Once you start making money you have to put things into perspective. — Rakim

And I'll break, when I'm through breakin, I'll leave you broke, Drop the mic when I'm finished, and watch it smoke — Rakim

I always wanted to kind of make the listener feel like it was them that I was talking about, or to the point that I could say the rhyme, and feel like it's them saying it. — Rakim

Dabbling in music and being in music when I was young I had my own view of what I thought music was whether it was jazz, r&b, or hip hop. — Rakim

You can't win for losing. — Rakim

Once I finish one album I know where to begin again. — Rakim

Life Lessons by Rakim

1. Rakim's work teaches us to be confident and to never give up on our dreams, no matter the obstacles.
2. He encourages us to work hard and to stay true to ourselves, even when others may doubt us.
3. He also reminds us to always stay humble and to never forget where we come from.