Raekwon Quotes

After you make good, quality music, then it's your job to go out there and promote it and to market it and to get it out there to the people.

I am international. When I put out my second mixtape, we did four tours and a tour overseas.

One of the hardest things about being a musician is finishing a project and then having to wait three or six months to publish it and to do all the sort of promotional behaviour.

Well, I have a band, Sadie and the Hotheads, and we have an album that is already out that is available on our website.

I'm consistently recording and releasing stuff online or YouTube videos or whatever it is. I just don't know if it's going to be a full on, I'm the next Rihanna, or whatever. I'm not going for it to that level. But I love making music and I don't think I could stop if I wanted to.

My sons are coming out with music. Square Off, they're called.

When I put out my first mixtape, '50 Cent is the Future,' it was the first tape where an artist did the entire tape in song format.

I think it's important to update my fans on what I'm doing and where I'm going next and when my next single is going to drop and my album.

I'm overly excited to finally announce this amazing global partnership deal back home with EMI Music. I know I have mentioned doing music in the past but for legal reasons I was not in a position to release any new music.

Obviously given good health, and a continuing audience and a record company that allows me to do music. So given those things yes, I'm introducing some new music that people haven't really heard me do in quite this fashion.

So it was out of necessity that Blackheart was born. I think it's great that now, 25 years later, we're not only putting out our own music, but are able to put out music by other bands. That's really exciting for us.

I think when you put a new record out, everyone has a song or two that they feel people will be moved by so much that radio will be forced to play it.

The thing about 'Hold Back The River' that I like is that it's a good starting place, and it was the perfect first single.

Yeah, I know, any time you hear an actor say, 'I do music', you cringe. But I want to be gradual with my music. I want to earn my stripes.

Napster is great so long as they put out tracks on there that have been officially released. I don't really mind people downloading my music; I also see it as a compliment. And if you are a real music lover, you want to have the original CD anyway 'cause then you feel more connected to the artist.

The problem that I have is with the music business. For some reason it seems almost impossible to get anything, any music, released which includes improvisation or soloing.

I'm sure if we had made an album that was more traditional would have been released immediately. When we actually play this music on stage and people become familiar with it, it will become more popular.

The truth is an artist like me who doesn't get the type of promotion that we see more commercial artists receive, and especially in this climate of the music business, you have to be creative about how you promote yourself.

It's very easy for people to put out music.

This is a business built on promotion. We've been giving music away to radio stations for 30 years.

So, I don't know what is going to happen when the CD comes out, how well it will sell, etc. But, from a personal point of view, it was a very worthwhile endeavor.

I'm releasing a single. It's called 'Live it Up.' It was based on my Euro trip. I only write my own music. I don't let other people write it at all. So I've been working on that a lot. There's three singles coming out. The producer of The Fray who did their double-platinum album 'How to Save a Life,' I'm working with him. He's producing me.

I make a lot of pieces of music that I never release as CDs.

Basically, at some point, one day maybe you can expect to hear some of my music. I haven't really done that yet because my younger brother is a musician and really talented and I want him to come out with his music first.

I'm into it, I'm into MP3's; I think there's no way you're ever going to be able to legislate people having to buy a record in order to listen to it. You have to look at it as a means of promotion, and if the music is good enough, promotion is a good thing.