Chance The Rapper Quotes

I'm not so interested in being indie just for the sake of being indie.

I see a lot of connections between folk and punk music just because they're both subcorporate music - I mean, traditionally.

I enjoy independent music, even more than Bollywood.

I never identified with 'indie,' I don't like that word.

Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.

Mixtapes are always small scale to me - they never get taken seriously, and they're always short-lived.

I think music sharing of any kind is great.

As a DJ, it's my job to break new music. And instead of it just being the stuff that's coming from the major labels or the big pop records, I've always gravitated to something that's just different, you know?

We went into that knowing that we were never going to sell a major record 'cause we didn't sound like these bands, so I just thought this was an opportunity for us to make the kind of records that we wanted and make some money at the same time.

We've been allowed to operate unmolested on the fringes of the music scene, really. That's where we enjoy it most.

Just sharing music with each other - that's cool. It's the selling that becomes the problem.

It's not like I set out to be 'the indie guy.'

This is a public statement: I'm in favor of mixtapes.

All the serious bands, all the punks, came from Bristol.

My music isn't mainstream music.

I never wrote music for the mainstream.

We love the idea of putting out music in a non-conventional way.

When I decided to collaborate with people, I wanted to collaborate more with the underdogs, the street people, messing with the people like Jae Millz and Papoose. When I went to New York, they were all over the mixtapes, so I wanted to get down with those guys instead of trying to go safe with all the super-big names.

I'm into indie music. I think indie is going to bring back the spirit in music. There was a time when it was all about accommodating the music business, the music was getting tasteless, but the spirit is back.

I'm not a pop rapper. That's nothing against pop music - I love pop music. I've jumped on pop records for people and still will, but I'm not a pop artist. I didn't start from there. I started in underground music. I consider myself an underground artist, as well as a producer.

I didn't grow up with indie rock - I mean, I listened to bands that are considered indie rock, but I think that term is dead and uninteresting.

A mixtape is for the street, it's something you without necessarily thinking about it, because you have to stay in the game. It's like writing an e-mail saying hello to your friends.

When Punk Rock happened, it created an opening in the culture... it made it ok to think you could play music, even though you had no musical training.

Punk-rock gave music back to people. For a long time, when I was very young, I went to go see arena rock bands. I was 16 and it was all I could get in to see, legally. And I saw Led Zeppelin and Ted Nugent and Van Halen and all that. Me and [Minor Threat and Fugazi vocalist] Ian MacKaye would go to these concerts, and it was fun.

We decided to start our own group because we were bored with everything we heard... Everything was 10th-generation Led Zeppelin... Overproduced, or just junk. We missed music like it used to be.