VINCE STAPLES

Some people make their best music when life is horrible.

I want to have an impact because I don't want anybody to have to go through what I went through.

Circumstances dictate your set of values, your set of morals.

When I was growing up, skateboarding was big and basketball was big.

What's important to me is people just being people.

Touring helped me understand where I needed to be better in my music.

Every project has to stand on its own. It's a different identity within each project, and I feel like that's the way it should be.

Separation is very important to me. I don't strive to be a celebrity. My music has nothing to do with me at the end of the day. Once it's made and it's purchased, it belongs to whoever.

The best song is what resonates with that one person the most. It's why, if you ask a million people on the face of the Earth, they're all gonna have different favorite songs, their own best song ever, because that's the one that touched them the most.

At a very young age, I could look at people and tell that everyone was, in a sense, worthless in their own mind. And you couldn't trust anyone. No one was good.

My cares come from a very selfish place 'cause in reality I'm young, and I haven't had the experience to be mature yet.

Care and pity are two different things.

I could care less about the radio or the TV or album sales. I want that connection with people because when I'm able to walk down the street, I want them to feel like I've done something for them and helped their life because I've never felt that way about a musician.

You're either ghetto or you're not.

The happiest people, the ones you like the most, they're never worried about being rich.

The place where you're from defines who you are. You put yourself in the wrong situation, the wrong things happen.

You have to captivate and entertain if you want your message to get across.

Some people lose sense of what their music was when their life starts to get better.

Basic emotions can be conveyed through anything. As long as you show people that you're human, they'll relate to it.

Everybody deserves a right to be happy.

The work is the understanding of the people that you're speaking for. The further you get away from that, the further you are from the work.

If you try to make music and try to convey to everyone that everything is all peachy-keen, you might come off like you're full of it, and that could be something that draws listeners away.

People have an overbearing need to project their inward doubt and hatred and emotions onto the outside world.

School doesn't teach you much. School teaches you how to follow directions, that's what school is for.

I don't think you should criticize people's music because maybe it just isn't for you.