El-P

The name of a cat has to come from something that just occurs to you by interacting with the cat.

— El-P

You put a piece of music out, and it's not in your hands anymore, and that's cool with me.

— El-P

I think it's impossible for hip-hop to be a dying art form.

— El-P

Everyone just wants to feel good, and I don't think that all music is designed to make you feel good.

— El-P

I'm trying to consciously evolve myself. I have no delusions of grandeur.

— El-P

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

— El-P

Why should I be sober when God is so clearly dusted out his mind?

— El-P

Rap music deserves truth, and it deserves spontaneity.

— El-P

I think that everyone who does music, and everyone who does art, or everyone who decides at a young age that they're…

— El-P

You can always get something cool out of a collaboration - you can always have a moment - but meeting someone that…

— El-P

Hip-hop is always moving. It's always looking for the next style; it's always trying to one-up the last person.

— El-P

I work on a musician's week, so Monday is Friday. By the time Thursday rolls around, you stay in, and you work,…

— El-P

I'm of the generation that discovered Aerosmith because of Run-DMC. They just looked crazy to me. They were the dudes in the…

— El-P

If New York has just become a mall for the world, then what's the difference between being here and somewhere else?

— El-P

The bravest artists I've ever known have always been graf artists. Risking your life and your freedom is no joke.

— El-P

I've lived in New York City all my life. I love New York City; I've never moved from New York City. Have…

— El-P

If you are a good writer you use your life experience to do something different than someone who is 20-years-old can do.…

— El-P

The crews that are going to be self-produced are going to make the great albums, as opposed to making these mix-tapes, these…

— El-P

Everyone just wants to feel good, and I don't think that all music is designed to make you feel good. Sometimes it's…

— El-P

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

— El-P

My relationship to Brooklyn is probably the relationship that any 40-year-old man has to his hometown, which is that this is where…

— El-P

There are two types of people, two types of performers: Performers who know how to keep a show going literally when the…

— El-P

I've been listening to this group called the Veils, which I kind of discovered late. I've been really obsessed with this album…

— El-P

New York is just an energy. There's a beauty to the way it's laid out: the architecture, the way the planning is.…

— El-P

I had a year, where... I was secretly, 100 percent, dead broke.

— El-P

Darkness does not truly have sway. I think that it's weak.

— El-P

It's pretty cool being 40 and having your blow-up moment.

— El-P

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

— El-P

Atheists are just as obnoxious if not more obnoxious than zealots.

— El-P

I tried to get Steven Seagal for my 'Stepfather Factory' video in 2002.

— El-P

I wanted people to know that I was making what I was making just on a sampler, basically.

— El-P

I definitely grew up on Garfield. I just loved his pessimism.

— El-P

Personally more so than shock, I think, rap music has to be born of rebellion.

— El-P

Anything that gets to the more emotional and dark side of music, I always enjoy.

— El-P

I was raised by women. The men in my life were either not there or not good when they were there.

— El-P

I really only put stuff out when I have something to say and I feel like I've got a direction and I've…

— El-P

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

— El-P

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

— El-P

I'm not trying to change the face of hip-hop music. I'm trying to make my records and always take the next step…

— El-P

Run The Jewels, me and Mike, and our connection and everything, came out of a period of time where I had personally…

— El-P