And make sure to check out these and .

1. “Reality is wrong. Dreams are for real.”

2. “Don’t change on me. Don’t extort me unless you intend to do it forever.”

3. “Don’t believe everything you hear. Real eyes, realize, real lies.”

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

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

6. “If you can make it through the night, there’s a brighter day.”

7. “The only thing that comes to a sleeping man is dreams.”

8. “Our future is our confidence and self-esteem.”

9. “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.”

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

11. “It seems like every time you come up, something happens to bring you back down.”

12. “You’re right. I am crazy. But you know what else? I don’t give a f*ck.”

13. “All I’m trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.”

14. “I don’t see myself being special; I just see myself than the next man. People look to me to do things for them, to have answers.”

15. “When you do rap albums, you got to train yourself. You got to constantly be in character.”

16. “What people do for the struggle of power is madness.”

17. “Even put their spears down on Sundays.”

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

19. “Even the genius asks questions.”

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

21. “Watch for phonies—keep your enemies close, watch your homies.”

22. “It takes skill to be real. Time to heal each other.”

23. “No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn’t glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It’s all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.”

24. “Pay no mind to those who talk behind your back. It simply means that you are two steps ahead.”

25. “During your life, never stop dreaming. No one can take away your dreams.”

26. “Life is a wheel of fortune and it’s my turn to spin it.”

27. “I worked hard all my life, as far as this music business. I dreamed of the day when I could go to New York and feel comfortable and they could come out here and be comfortable.”

28. “A coward dies a thousand deaths. A soldier dies but once.”

29. “It’s the game of life. Do I win or do I lose? One day, they’re gonna shut the game down. I gotta have as much fun and go around the board as many times as I can before it’s my turn to leave.”

30. “I don’t see why everybody feels as though they gotta tell me how to live my life.”

31. “You know nothing can stop me but loss of breath, and I’m still breathing, so it’s still on.”

32. “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 need some 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.’”

33. “My life was lived through falling rain, so call on me if there be pain.”

34. “The seed must grow regardless of the fact that it’s planted in stone.”

35. “Sometimes, life can be a heavy load.”

36. “The world moves fast and it would rather pass by than to stop and see what makes you cry.”

37. “Everything will be alright if you hold on. It’s a struggle every day, gotta roll on.”

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

39. “Sometimes, I sit and look at life from a different angle.”

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

41. “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.”

42. “No one knows my struggle, they only see the trouble. Not knowing how hard it is to carry on when no one loves you.”

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

44. “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.”

45. “Unconditional love. Talking ‘bout the stuff that don’t wear off, it don’t fade. It’ll last for all these crazy days, these crazy nights. Whether you wrong or you right, I’mma still love you, still feel you, still there for you. No matter what, you will always be in my heart with unconditional love.”

46. “I am a hard person to love, but when I love, I love really hard.”

47. “Time to heal our women, be real to our women.”

48. “I’m going to show people my true intentions and my true heart. I’m going to show them the man that my mother raised. I’m going to make them all proud.”

49. “‘Cause I think we can make it, in fact, I’m sure. And if you fall, stand tall and come back for more.”

50. “Always falling too deep in a relationship, always end up being the one that’s hurt the most.”

51. “Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.”

52. “Hate to sound sleazy, but tease me, I don’t want it if that easy.”

53. “Trust nobody.”

54. “Don’t get confused between my personality and my attitude. My personality is who I am, my attitude depends on who you are.”

55. “The realest people don’t have a lot of friends.”

56. “I just don’t know how to deal with so many people giving me that much affection. I never had that in my life.”

57. “You can never ‘just be friends’ with someone you with.”

58. “Ain’t a woman alive that can take my momma’s place.”

59. “Here’s a message to the newborns, waiting to breathe—if you believe, then you can achieve. Just look at me.”

60. “Learn to see me as a brother instead of two distant strangers.”

61. “I have no fear. I have no m*th*f*ck*n fear. I have only ambition. I want mine, and I will do anything to feed and protect my family.”

62. “My mother had a really bad childhood, and my father had a bad childhood, and I had a bad childhood; but I love my childhood. Even though it was bad, I love it. I feel like it’s taught me so much. And I feel like nothing can faze me, you know nothing in this world, nothing can surprise me, it might set me back, but only momentarily, only to spring back.”

63. “I live in hell. I have no friends. I never sleep. I can never close my eyes. Can you imagine what it’s like to be who I am?”

64. “17 is such a weird age. It’s such a—and the middle age, you’re not 18 yet, and you’re older than 16. It’s like a learning stage for me.”

65. “I was letting people dictate who should be my friends. I felt like I couldn’t be friends with . And so I dissed her, even though she showed me nothing but love. I felt bad because when I went to jail, I called her and she was the only person that was willing to help me.”

66. “If you grew up happy—too happy—I don’t think that prepares you for the world.”

67. “Just because you lost me as a friend doesn’t mean you gained me as an enemy. I’m bigger than that. I still wanna see you eat, just not at my table.”

68. “I think that we deserve a lot of respect, because you know in the ’60s, they changed a lot. And those teenagers were given respect, because they changed a lot, and they did a lot. We’re givin’ no respect and we have to do a lot, I mean the world—no secret, but the world is in bad shape. So, we have to do a lot of good things. So, I think we deserve a little bit more respect.”

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

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

71. “Is it a crime to fight for what is mine?”

72. “Where there is a will, there is a will to search and discover a better day. Where a positive heart is all you need to rise beyond and succeed, where young minds grow and respect each other based on their deeds and not their color when times are dim say as I say, ‘Where there’s a will there’s a way!’”

73. “There’s gonna be some stuff you gonna see that’s gonna make it hard to smile in the future, but through whatever you see, through all the rain and the pain you gotta keep your sense of humor. You gotta be able to smile through all this bullshit. Remember that.”

74. “A woman brought you into this world, so you have no right to disrespect one.”

74. “Don’t live to fight, fight to live.”

76. “Always do your best, don’t let the pressure make you panic.”

77. “I know you’re fed up, ladies, but keep ya head up.”

78. “Recollect your thoughts, don’t get caught up in the mix.”

79. “Hip hop was supposed to be this new thing that had no boundaries and was so different to everyday music.”

80. “Everything in life is not all beautiful, not all fun. There is lots of killing and drugs. To me, a perfect album talks about the hard stuff and the fun and caring stuff.”

81. “As long as the music has the true to the heart soul, it can be hip hop. As long as it has soul to it, hip hop can live on.”

82. “Things will never be the same, that’s just the way it is.”

83. “If you let a person talk long enough, you’ll hear their true intentions.”

84. “I’m just as guilty for not doing nothing as I am for doing things. Not with this case, but just in my life. I had a job to do and I never showed up. I was so scared of this responsibility that I was running away from it.”

85. “We was young and we was dumb, but we had heart.”

86. “This fast life soon shatters, ‘cause after all the lights and screams, nothing but my dreams matter.”

87. “Why am I fighting to live, if I am just living to fight? Why am I trying to see, when there ain’t nothing in sight? Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try? Why am I dying to live, if I am just living to die?”

88. “Sometimes, when I’m alone, I cry, ‘cause I am on my own. The tears I cry are bitter and warm. They flow with life, but take no form. I cry because my heart is torn. I find it difficult to carry on. If I had an ear to confide in, I would cry among my treasured friends, but who do you know that stops that long, to help another carry on?”

89. “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?”

90. “For a woman, it ain’t easy tryin’ to raise a man.”

91. “Everybody against me. Why? Why me? I have not brought violence to you. I have not brought ‘Thug Life’ to America. I didn’t create ‘Thug Life.’ I diagnosed it.”

92. “For quiet times disappear; listen to the ocean.”

93. “I’m not trying to make people think I’m in here faking it, but my whole life is going to be about saving somebody.”

94. “I want to learn from my mistakes.”

95. “The fake get in where they fit in, the real stand strong where they belong.”

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

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

98. “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.”

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

100. “Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

101. “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.”

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

103. “I exist in the depths of solitude pondering my true goal. Trying to find peace of mind and still preserve my soul.”

104. “Don’t leave this world without giving it your all.”

105. “Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared.”

106. “Tomorrow, I wake with second wind and strong because of pride. I know I fought with all my heart to keep the dream alive.”

107. “So no matter how hard it gets, stick your chest out, keep ya head up, and handle it.”

108. “Should I just stop trying and give up? But then, that’s exactly what they’re waiting for me to do.”

109. “Do everything you can to make it around the system, over the system, or out the system.”

110. “You gotta learn to hold your own.”

111. “That which does not kill me can only make me stronger.”

112. “Many dreams are what we had and plenty of wishes.”

113. “The only thing that can kill me is death, that’s the only thing that can ever stop me, is death, and even then my music will live forever.”

114. “I started seeing my situation and what got me here. Even though I’m innocent of the charge they gave me, I’m not innocent in terms of the way I was acting.”

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

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

117. “People die, but legends live forever.”

118. “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*ck on.”

119. “Out of anger comes controversy, out of controversy comes conversation, out of conversation comes action.”

120. “How long will they mourn me?”

121. “We probably in hell already, our dumb *ss*s not knowin’, everybody kissin’ *ss to go to heaven ain’t going.”

122. “One thing we all adore, something worth dying for, nothing but pain, stuck in this game, searchin’ for fortune and fame.”

123. “Imperfection is inherited. Therefore, we all sin. But fighting the war of sin is the greatest war of all.”

124. “In my death, people will understand what I was talking about.”

125. “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.”

126. “Just ‘cause you live in the ghetto doesn’t mean you can’t grow.”

127. “I’m not saying I’m gonna change the world, but I guarantee that I will spark the brain that will change the world.”

128. “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.”

129. “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.”

130. “You gotta make a change. You see, the old way wasn’t working, so it’s on us to do what we gotta do to survive.”

131. “Everytime I speak, I want the truth to come out. Everytime I speak, I want a shiver.”

132. “We wouldn’t ask why a rose that grew from the concrete for having damaged petals. In turn, we would all celebrate its tenacity, we would all love its will to reach the sun.”

133. “It’s time for us as a people to start making some changes. Let’s change the way we eat, let’s change the way we live, and let’s change the way we treat each other.”

134. “Look to my future, ‘cause my past is all behind me.”

135. “I’m not perfect, but I’ll always be real.”

136. “I came to California to escape the violence, to escape New York.”

137. “I think the MTV generation is the next generation to come and the best generation that we’ve had thus far. They’re starting to see the mistakes; they’re starting to try to check it.”

138. “Everybody that said I wasn’t nothing. My whole goal is to just make them ashamed that they wrote me off like that.”

139. “I’m dealing with a more military type of philosophy—to mix street life with respected, known, and proven military philosophy.”

140. “What we really want to do is get the pride back in the black community. I feel like if you can’t respect yourself, then you can’t respect one’s race, and then you can’t respect another’s race.”

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

142. “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?”

143. “You just can’t be calling us fakers, and pretenders, and non-creative, and say we can’t freestyle.”

144. “No matter who committed the crime, they all yell at me. And the media is greedier than most. You could sell ‘em your soul and they’ll be on ya till a n*gg*’s a ghost.”

145. “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.”

146. “I know it seems hard sometimes but remember one thing. Through every dark night, there’s a bright day after that.”

147. “Let the Lord judge the criminals.”

148. “Everybody’s at war with different things. I’m at war with my own heart sometimes.”

149. “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.”

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

151. “Somebody help me. Tell me where to go from here ‘cause even thugs cry, but do the Lord care?”

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

153. “Only God can judge me.”

154. “If they take half the buildings that they use to praise God and give it to the m*th*rf*ck*rs who need God, we’d be ‘aight.”

155. “Be grateful for blessings.”

156. “When I was alone and had nothing, I asked for a friend to help me bear the pain. No one came, except God. When I needed a breath to rise from my sleep, no one could help me, except God. When all I saw was sadness and I needed answers, no one heard me, except God. So when I’m asked who I give my unconditional love to? I look for no other name, except God.”

157. “Fear no man but only God.”

158. “It’s a struggle for every young Black man. You know how it is, only God can judge us.”

159. “Don’t ask me why, thank God, and ask me how.”

160. “They got money for the war, but can’t feed the poor.”

161. “I would rather have been shot straight-up in cold blood, but to be set up by people who you trusted? That’s bad.”

162. “I just spent 11 and a half months in a maximum-security jail, got shot five times, and was wrongly convicted of a crime I didn’t commit.”

163. “I think I’m a natural-born leader. I know how to bow down to authority if it’s authority that I respect.”

164. “I would rather be stricken blind, than to live without expression of mind.”

165. “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.”

166. “I am a 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.”

167. “I did not want to become the victim, so I became the bully.”

168. “I’m a reflection of the community.”

169. “As wars come and go, my soldier stays eternal.”

170. “To all the seeds that follow me protect your essence, born with less, but you still precious.”

171. “To me, I am the hardest n*gg* out there ‘cause I am real. I cry when I need to, but I am real.”

172. “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.”

173. “You know, I was steering people away from school. You gotta be in school, because through school you can get a job. And if you got a job, then that’s how they can’t do us like this.”

174. “This is a big question and no one’s been able to answer it and this is staggering. How can President Reagan live in the White House, which has a lot of rooms, and there be homelessness? And he’s talking about helping the homeless.”

175. “I mean, why have 52 rooms and you know there’s somebody with no room? It just don’t make sense to me.”

176. “The only time I have problems is when I sleep.”

177. “When I was a little baby, I remember that one moment of calm, peace, and 3 minutes after that, it was on.”

178. “Don’t think I don’t see you haters, I know y’all in disguise.”

179. “It don’t stop ’til the casket drop.”

180. “Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice. I say the darker the flesh, then the deeper the roots.”

181. “And did you ever stop to think that I’m old enough to go to war, but I ain’t old enough to drink.”

182. “I’m doing this for the kid who truly leads a ‘thug life’ and thinks it’s hopeless.”

183. “I feel close to Marvin Gaye, Vincent van Gogh, because nobody appreciated his work until he was dead. Now it’s worth millions.”

184. “I think being humble is sexy.”

185. “Stop killing each other—let’s just smoke a blunt.”

186. “Whatever it takes to switch places with the bustas on top.”

187. “If somebody else blows up and I fade out, that’s just how it’s supposed to be—that’s fate.”

188. “I got a big mouth, I can’t help it. I talk from my heart, I’m real.”

189. “I feel like Black Jesus got his hands on me and guided me through life to put me where I’m supposed to be.”

190. “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.”

191. “I’m not saying girls are perfect ‘cause we all know that’s not true. But why be unfaithful to her if she was true to you?”

192. “There’s no way that or whoever Jackson should have a million thousand droople billion dollars and then there are people starving. There’s no way!”

193. “It seems the rain’ll never let up. I try to keep my head up and still keep from gettin’ wet up.”

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

195. “I was the total opposite of what I am now. I was quiet, withdrawn, I read a lot, I wrote poetry.”

196. “I said, I’m gonna write a song about the women like my , 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.”

197. “Then, going to trial, I started seeing the black women that were helping me. Now I’ve got a brand-new vision of them, because in here, it’s mostly black female guards. They don’t give me no extra favors, but they treat me with human respect.”

198. “Driven by my ambitions, desire higher positions.”

199. “America wants its respect.”

200. “If you could walk a mile in my shoes, you’d be crazy too.”

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