I think that people have been claiming hip-hop as being dead since the moment it started.

Labels are curators of taste, and the best ones know how to monetize what an artist is trying to do.

You've got to recognize it when it's time to go.

There's always stuff to rebel against.

Being stupid and compassionate are not conflicts. Being mean and being funny and having something to say are not a conflict.

I'm of the generation that discovered Aerosmith because of Run-DMC. They just looked crazy to me. They were the dudes in the Run-DMC video. That's who Aerosmith was.

Music can feel empowering, or it can give a natural emotional voice to something people can't express. This is why it's beautiful.

Standing up for what you believe is right, as well as standing up for what you believe is funny, standing up for what you believe is cool. As we found each other and the music that we do, we get to live out all of those things. That's what Run The Jewels is: it's all of those aspects of our personality.

All I ever wanted to do, personally, was bring something new to what I loved: the thing that I loved the most, the music that I loved the most.

I always liked the idea that you can put something in you onto a canvas or a piece of paper and have it exist there and not inside you. It's a way to control things.

I probably started trying to make beats at around 12.

I really don't believe in going too far out of your way to hunt down somebody to do a song.

I'm not that prolific in terms of making my own music.

For me, the idea of releasing a free record is powerful if everybody gets it for free at the same time.

I guess there are a lot of writers out there who get really inspired when they're depressed. I can't write about being depressed until I'm happy. That's all there is to it. I need space.

I remember listening to 'Low End Theory': I had been kicked out of high school. I was in GED school in the LES, and all I could do was listen to 'Low End Theory.' I was in a strange time in my life, and 'Low End Theory' kind of defined that time.

You don't know what it feels like to have someone go to bat for you until you really need it, and they do.

I used to think that growing up in New York made me ready for everything - for everything. Before I really got a chance to travel, I thought that I was better prepared for the world because I was from New York.

I've fallen on my face. I've made mistakes. I've got plenty of records where I listen back, and I think, 'I wouldn't've done that.'

I don't believe in collaboration necessarily for collaboration's sake, but I will do it, and sometimes it's great.

I just don't believe in making music about making music anymore.

There are two types of people, two types of performers: Performers who know how to keep a show going, literally, when the power is gone and performers who haven't had that much experience and will panic and freak out and don't know what to do.

The last Company Flow reunion show in New York City was pretty insane. Everybody knew all the words to every song; everybody had smiles on their faces. Those shows are what you hope for every time you get on the stage.

I work on a musician's week, so Monday is Friday. By the time Thursday rolls around, you stay in, and you work, and you don't go out because it's horrible.