Essayists From The United States

"I'm still here mon frere I know the cross I bear, They like, that's why they call you Hov? I'm like yea I'm like air, little shots go through me, won't tear One tissue no tears, no tissue not an issue"

"I’m already the GOAT, the next stop is the billie"

"If you kill me you're famous, If I kill you, I’m brainless, What’s a nigga to do?"

"If you're havin' girl problems I feel bad for you son / I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one."

"I’ve got demons in my past so I’ve got daughters on the way, If the prophecy is correct then the child should have to pay, For the sins of the father so I barter my tomorrows against my yesterday’s In hopes that she’ll be okay"

"Pop died, didn't cry, didn't know him that well / Between him doin' heroin and me doin' crack sales / With that in the eggshell, standin' at the tabernacle / Rather the church, pretendin' to be hurt - wouldn't work / So a smirk was all on my face / Like damn, that man's face is just like my face / So pop, I forgive you for all the shit that I lived through / It wasn't all your fault homey, you got caught"

"If skills sold / Truth be told / I'd probably be / Lyricly / Talib Kweli / Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense / (But i did five Mil) / I ain't been rhymin like Common since -- When your sense got that much in common / And you been hustlin since / Your inception / Fuck perception / Go with what makes sense / Since / I know what I'm up against / We as rappers must decide what's most impor-tant"

"No compass comes with this life, just eyes, so to map it out you must look inside, sure books could guide you but your heart defines you, chica"

"I never asked for nothin' I don't demand of myself / Honesty, loyalty, friends and then wealth / Death before dishonor and I tell you what else / I tighten my belt 'fore I beg for help / Foolish pride is what held me together through the years / I wasn't felt which is why I ain't never played myself / I just play the hand I'm dealt, I can't say I've never knelt / Before God and asked for better cards at times to no avail / But I never sat back feelin sorry for myself / If you don't give me heaven I'll raise hell ('Til it's heaven)"

"Good-bye to the game all the spoils, the adrenaline rush Your blood boils, you in a spot knowin' cops could rush you in the drop, you so easy to touch No two days are alike, except the 1st and 15th pretty much And trust, is a word you seldom hear from us Hustlers, we don't sleep, we rest one eye up And a drought could define a man when the well dries up You learn the worth of water Without work you thirst 'til you die, yup!"

"Music business hate me ‘cause the industry ain't make me Hustlers and boosters embrace me and the music I be making I dumbed down for my audience to double my dollars They criticized me for it, yet they all yell "holla" If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense But I did 5 mill' – I ain't been rhyming like Common since When your cents got that much in common And you been hustling since your inception Fuck perception! Go with what makes sense Since I know what I'm up against We as rappers must decide what's most important And I can't help the poor if I'm one of them So I got rich and gave back, to me that's the win/win So next time you see the homie and his rims spin Just know my mind is working just like them (rims, that is)"

"Motherfuckers say that I'm foolish I only talk about jewels Do you fools listen to music or do you just skim through it? See I'm influenced by the ghetto you ruined That same dude you gave nothing, I made something doing."

"Now you know yo' ass is Willie when they got you in the mag for like half a billy, and yo' ass ain't lily white that mean that shit you write must be illy Either that or your flow is silly - it's both I don't mean to boast, but damn if I don't brag Them crackers gon' act like I ain't on they ass The Martha Stewart, that's far from Jewish Far from a Harvard student, just had the balls to do it"

"I'm not a biter, I'm a writer for myself and others / I say a B.I.G. verse, I'm only biggin' up my brother / Biggin' up my borough, I'm big enough to do it / I'm that thorough, plus I know my own flow is foolish / So them rings and things you sing about, bring 'em out / It's hard to yell when the bar-rell's in your mouth"

"Rumor has it "The Blueprint" classic Couldn't even be stopped by Bin Laden So September 11th marks the era forever of a revolutionary Che Gueverra"

"On repeat, the CD of B.I.G.'s 'Me and My Bitch' Watching Bonnie and Clyde, pretending to be that shit Empty gun in your hand saying, 'Let me see that clip' Shopping sprees, pull out your Visa quick A nigga had very bad credit, you helped me lease that whip You helped me get the keys to that V dot 6 We was so happy poor but when we got rich That's when our signals got crossed, and we got flipped."

"Even if it ain't sunny, hey, I ain't complaining I'm in the rain doing a buck 40, hydroplaning, what, shorty? (Where you disappear to, son?) Maintaining Putting myself in a position most of these rappers ain't in I'm living, the ill street blues got you hunger painin' Nothing to gain and a whole lot to lose, you still singing, fool I'm thorough, in every borough, my name be ringing"

"They say you can't turn a bad girl good But once a good girl's gone bad, she's gone forever"

"Whoever said illegal was the easy way out couldn't understand The mechanics and the workings of the underworld, granted Nine to five is how to survive, I ain't trying to survive I'm trying to live it to the limit and love it a lot Life's ills poison my body I used to say Fuck mic skills, I never prayed to God, I prayed to Gotti That's right it's wicked, that's life, I live it Ain't asking for forgiveness for my sins"

"Hov' is back, life stories told through rap Niggas acting like I sold you crack Like I told you sell drugs; No, Hov did that so hopefully you won't have to go through that."

"There's heaven, then there's hell niggas One day your cruising in your 7 next day your sweatin forgettin your lies Alibis ain't matchin up, bullshit catchin up Hit with the rico, they repo your vehico' Everything was all good just a week ago 'Bout to start bitching ain't you? Ready to start snitching ain't you? I'll forgive your weak ass, hustling just ain't you Aside from the fast cars; honey's that shake they ass at bars you know you wouldn't be involved with the underworld dealers, carriers of Mac Miller East coast bodiers, west coast cap peelers Little monkey niggas turn gorillas"

"For nine six, the only mc wit a flu Yeah I rhyme sick I be what you tryin to do Made a fortune off Peru, expedite, china white heron Nigga please like short sleeves I bear arms."

"I sell ice in the winter, I sell fire in hell I am a hustler, baby, I'll sell water to a well"

"Hand gettin the mic. Forgettin all I ever knew, convenient amnesia. I suggest you call my lawyer, I know the procedure Lock my body, can't trap my mind easily, explains why we adapt to crime I'd rather die enormous than live dormant, that's how we on it."

"If you are having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I got 99 problems but a bitch ain't one, you think - this guy is talking about women, but I am not. I am not talking about women at all. In the first verse I am talking about the industry, magazines and radio. I am using that as a metaphor. And in the second verse I am talking about a K9, which is a female dog, which is a bitch. And then in the third verse I am talking about a guy trying to punk me. So I am not talking about a female at no time in that song. But if you just hear the record, 99 problems but a bitch ain't one, you'll think that I am talking about about women, but I am not, at no point in the song."

"Jay Hov about to change my name to Jay Peso but in a meantime called me William H though on a platinum Yamaha got the engine gunning throwing it up like liquor on an empty stomach."

"6 oohie, jewels dripping big tooly I ball for real: y'all niggas is Sam Bowie And with the third pick, I made the earth sick M.J., him Jay, fade away perfect."

"Niggas pray and pray on my downfall But every time I hit the ground I bounce up like round ball."

"One thing that is known about ARPA: you can be heaved off it for supporting the policies of the Department of Defense. Of course that was intended to anger me. If you have an ARPA account, please tell CSTACY that he was successful; now let us see if my Pentagon friends can upset him. Or perhaps some reporter friends. Or both., Or even the House Armed Services Committee."

"I have more information in one place than anybody in the world."

"I've noticed that just about every time I find a large program with known glitches that no one seems able to fix, that program is written in C and is likely written by a programming team in a remote location."

"Of course most people underestimate the warrior characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon and Norman peoples anyway. It takes a heap of piety to keep a Viking from wanting to go sack a city."

"Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions."

"To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection. (Note: This quote, although found in the 1985 sci-fi novel, 'Lucifer's Hammer', by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, may be erroneously attributed to Pournelle. As this quote can also be found in the Preface of Henri Poincare's "Science and Hypothesis" the 1952 Dover abridged edition)"

"If there aren't any whaling ships, then whales may survive. Anything short of that is so much hot air."

"The importance of information is directly proportional to its improbability."

"I thought MAD was truly insane when we first adopted it, and I haven't changed my opinion."

"To stand on the firing parapet and expose yourself to danger; to stand and fight a thousand miles from home when you’re all alone and outnumbered and probably beaten; to spit on your hands and lower the pike; to stand fast over the body of Leonidas the King; to be rear guard at Kunu-Ri; to stand and be still to the Birkenhead Drill; these are not rational acts. They are often merely necessary."

"In any ethical situation, the thing you want least to do is probably the right action."

"One of the first things they teach stockbrokers is to stay out of the stock market. Brokers make their pile from selling advice, and from commissions on stock transactions. They can't predict the market, and few risk their own money. They, at least, only affect their clients' fortunes. Economists, though, can ruin the lot of us with their advice — yet if no science can predict a relatively closed system like the stock market, how the devil are you going to 'fine tune' something a large as the American economy? I'd think it arrogant to try; as arrogant as the man with three illiterate drug-addicted spoiled brats writing a book on parenting."

"We know by a certain age the great palace lies of the culture — if you buy or do or achieve this or that, you will be happy and rich. Nope. Love and service make us rich."

"She had come planning to swim, which I hadn’t as the water is too cold for me, and she took off all her clothes, right there and then. “Do you feel shy?” I asked as she walked to the bank. “Nope. This here is what I done got. This is what me being alive looks like now.""

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

"So Rita and I decided that the most subversive, revolutionary thing I could do was to show up for my life and not be ashamed."

"Do I think the sky is falling? Sort of."

"The game of life is hard, and a lot of us are playing hurt."

"You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do."

"Not forgiving is like drinking rat poison, and then waiting around for the rat to die."

"Laughter is carbonated holiness."

"The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty. Certainty is missing the point entirely. Faith includes noticing the mess, the emptiness and discomfort, and letting it be there until some light returns. Faith also means reaching deeply within, for the sense one was born with, the sense, for example, to go for a walk."