My parents were fairly young in the city of Compton. So the things that they played – you know, that was the hip crowd. So I was being exposed to all these ideas, from Big Daddy Kane to Eazy-E to the Bay Area – Too Short, E-40 – you know, back to Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers.

The jazz I love is sweet and pure with raw elements, which is exactly what the good hip-hop is doing now.

My mom’s one of 13 siblings, and they all got six kids, and till I was 13 everybody was in Compton.

My favorite artists always documented emotion. Marvin Gaye and Al Green and Sade and Aaliyah.

Anybody that doesn’t like Cardi B a hater!

The last game I played in college was in the NIT against St. Mary’s. That was the first time I had come to the Oakland area. So, the last game I played in college and the first game of my NBA career were out here in the Bay Area. It’s pretty cool.

I like Cardi B!

My pops and my mom started playing Marvin Gaye and the Isley Brothers and all these people, but at the same time, they always had Snoop on right behind it in the same mix.

Hip hop has always been braggin‘ and boasting and ‚I’m better at you than this‘ and ‚I’m better at you than that.‘

I really love the culture of hip-hop.

Compton got such a legacy in hip-hop.

Being a student of hip-hop in general, you take technical aspects from places. You may take a rhyme pattern or flow from Big Daddy Kane or Kool G Rap.

Tupac, Biggie, Jay. Your usual suspects. These were the people that was played in my household.

Anyone who doesn’t have a great time in San Francisco is pretty much dead to me.

My fans love me for me, my beats, my rhymes.

There’s been people who’ve rapped and produced – like Kanye – but I don’t feel like on the rapping side there’s ever been a producer who can rap as good as I think I can rap.

I was a super-duper Tupac fan, and I realized later, when I became a huge Nas fan and a huge Eminem fan, I was drawn to the storytellers. They all told stories in different ways, but they were all like the best storytellers.

There are plenty of people who are, I think, completely racist who love hip-hop.

If you’re going to write about rap music and hip-hop, and you don’t love it, then we don’t need your opinion, and we revoke your opinion.

Look at Pusha-T. He makes a certain type of rap music. ‚Daytona‘ is that on the highest level.

I now possess the tools as a producer and a songwriter to really just go out and make smashes all day long. I could make an album full of smash records that got pop appeal. But my heart is in hip-hop. My heart is in telling stories. And it’s like therapy for me.

I grew up on the Beatles; I love Linkin Park and Green Day. I heard hip-hop for the first time at 11 and realized what I was missing.

As hard as it is, as ghetto as it is, hip-hop is pop music. It’s the sound of music getting out of the ghetto, while rock is looking for a ghetto.

Personally, I just think rap music is the best thing out there, period. If you look at my deck in my car radio, you’re always going to find a hip-hop tape; that’s all I buy, that’s all I live, that’s all I listen to, that’s all I love.

Dropkick Murphys get me going, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Nirvana… plus, all the regular hip-hop stuff.

Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Nas, Eminem, Big L, Tupac. That was, like, my top five, generally.

Hip-hop is ever changing but you’ll always have the pack. And you’ll always have those people who are separated from the pack.

I really like hip-hop and rap; that’s my main influence. I really wanna be more of a hip-hop artist.

As a kid from Compton, you can get all the success in the world and still question your worth.

I love Wiz Khalifa.

Rap was my drug.

I always wanted to operate at the highest altitude, just in terms of hip-hop and the music.

‚Nothin‘ on You‘ by B.o.B was the first song where I heard myself on the radio. I’d been trying my whole career to write a song like that, which incorporates live instruments with hip-hop and singing.

I think Ye is important to hip-hop.

I’ve got an extra-specific story about Dr. Dre. I saw him when I was 9 years old in Compton – him and Tupac. They were shooting the second ‚California Love‘ video. My pops had seen him and ran back to the house and got me, put me on his neck, and we stood there watching Dre and Pac in a Bentley.

I used to really love Fiend, but he stopped. He just stopped. Every time he had a project, every project – ‚There’s One In Every Family,‘ ‚Street Life‘ – I had to have them. And he just stopped. And that was disappointing, ‚cause that was my favorite rapper at one time.

The effect of music on fashion has been immense, especially hip-hop and urban music.

I’m just changing the game because I know what the fans want and the people want ‚cause I’m a fan of hip-hop.

The thing about hip-hop today is it’s smart, it’s insightful. The way they can communicate a complex message in a very short space is remarkable.

It’s an honor for me to represent urban music, reggaeton, trap and hip-hop.

I am not a BART regular but have taken it probably five times to and from the city with some of my teammates. Nice to just hop on the train and enjoy some of the views of the Bay Area while I’m out.

One of the things people don’t really recognise about the similarities between country and hip-hop is that they’re celebrations of pride in a lifestyle.

My whole thing is to inspire, to better people, to better myself forever in this thing that we call rap, this thing that we call hip hop.

This is the thing about hip-hop music and where people get it most misconstrued: It’s all hip-hop. You can’t say that just what I do is hip-hop, because hip-hop is all energies. James Brown can get on the track and mumble all day. But guess what? You felt his soul on those records.

Kanye West is my favorite artist.

In the Bay Area, there was a resurgence of Dixieland jazz in the ’40s – there was the Frisco Jazz Band, and Lu Watters and the Yerba Buena Jazz Band.

I don’t know how the rap game is, because I’m a fan of reality, and the rap game’s entertainment.

It’s important to love in hip hop.

In hip-hop, there’s not a lot of love. There’s not a lot of love being spread. It’s always like ‚I’m stuntin‘ on you raps, or I’m better than you raps.‘ It’s not a lot of ‚Yo man, I idolize you raps.‘

My only scheme was to be a rapper.

As a medical doctor, I have known the face of adversity. I have seen much of death and dying, suffering and sorrow. I also remember the plight of students overwhelmed by their studies and of those striving to learn a foreign language. And I recall the fatigue and frustration felt by young parents with children in need.

I realized the power of hip-hop. I realized how influential this music and this culture are.

Snoop ain’t never cosigned me, but I know everybody is like, ‚That’s the next Snoop.‘ Nah, I’m Nipsey, and I got to work to define myself.

For the chorus of ‚Secrets,‘ we used The Romantics‘ ‚Talking in Your Sleep‘ and ‚Pale Shelter‘ by Tears for Fears. It’s like hip-hop: just grab it.

Sometimes you have the trends that’s not that cool. You may have certain artists portraying these trends and don’t really have that lifestyle, and then it gives off the wrong thing. And it becomes kinda corny after awhile. It’s really about keeping hip-hop original and pushing away the corniness in it.

Hip-hop saved my life, man. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been even decent at. I don’t know how to do anything else.

You don’t hear no artists from Compton showing vulnerability.