Music Authenticity Quotes

I think recording at home feels more organic, and injects some more personality into the music.

I think, fundamentally, music is something inherently people love and need and relate to, and a lot of what's out right now feels like McDonalds. It's quick-fix. You kind of have a stomachache afterwards.

I don't write happy songs. Who does? I don't know anybody who writes happy songs, really.

It's been really cool to me to watch someone like Sam Hunt, whose lyrics and roots are in country but you can hear that he listens to Drake and Justin Timberlake - and that's OK. It allows songwriters to be more honest because it's like, 'This is who I'm listening to.'

I see myself as a hip-hop artist, but I never wanted to make music for a specifically white audience. That's not what I grew up around.

If I had to play only for people who liked the music because they heard it on the radio, it wouldn't make me happy. That's why I'm working so hard to have, yes, a profile as an artist, but also a profile as a DJ.

I don't need a sensationalized headline to sell music or to bring attention to my music. It's the music and it's always been about the music.

I think fans going to concerts expect more today in terms of meeting and things. It's cool - I get it because of how the Internet has made things much more personal for fans to follow with Facebook, Twitter and everything - but I also think it's kind of hindering because it takes from the music in a way.

I wouldn't use a song I didn't think was my brand or image.

You can listen to the records and know: We're really street.

When I listen to Amy Winehouse, I believe that her heart and soul is in the music, or if I listen to other British artists like Duffy or Estelle. The aesthetic of it is different, and it's my point of view. It's not anything formulaic.

I really hate it when I see other bands selling their music to commercials.

I might lie a lot but never in my lyrics.

The people who go get an LL album want to hear LL. They don't want to hear LL trying to sound like DMX or whoever else is out there. That's not what they want to hear from me, because if they want to hear that they can go get the real thing.

When you are real in your music, people know it and they feel your authenticity.

I'm a very private person. What I did in the past or what somebody heard me do or has a bootleg of me doing...well, if you have a bootleg, then I did it.

I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I'm conscious of the mainstream without selling out.

It took me five years to realize what I could do with my voice. No Auto-Tune - cut all that off.

I think the people who are sitting in their living room doing those, 'Let's take country music back' blogs and all that stuff, that's crazy to me. No one's saying that about rock & roll, and no one sounded like the Beatles since 1960. No one says that about R&B, and no one sounded like the Commodores since 1970.

No matter what these people say about me, my music doesn't glorify any image. My music is spiritual when you listen to it. It's all about emotion, I tell my innermost, darkest secrets.

Just because something's kinda indie and whatever and only a few people know it, it doesn't give it more authenticity over Rihanna's 'Work' work work.

The best way to use the auto-tune is not to! And that's what I do: I do not use auto-tune!

Music is real when it goes inside you. You know when you really love someone, and you look into their eyes and you know it's real? Even though I'm an electronic artist, I wanna keep it real.

I always have felt that most people don't have the first idea about what musicians, in the traditional sense - I don't mean in the modern media fake way, but traditionally - what they went through, what their lives were like.

I have a lot of respect for Eminem and Rihanna. They are both very real in their music.