Action Bronson
The restaurant business is something that you have to treat like a baby. You have to constantly be there. You can't trust it to anybody else, because no one's going to love it like you do.Collection: Trust
I'll always be into sports. Sports is part of my life forever. My TV stays on ESPN all day long, I'm one of those. I don't even listen to music in the car; all I listen to is sports talk.Collection: Sports
This is just rap. I'm not trying to make people think I'm some sort of scientific wizard or inspirational poet.Collection: Inspirational
I live in the moment, and I reflect later.
My childhood was great, honestly. I have all these incredible memories of my childhood. I was an only child. I always had all my cousins around. I had my grandparents around. I had my parents around. I had my uncles around - whatever.
I'm a championship handball player. I'm a championship softball and baseball player. I used to be an extremely talented center in high school in football. I also dabbled in lacrosse and soccer. I'm really good at billiards, darts, shuffleboard.
I'm naturally a nice person. I'm not trying to have any problems with people. I'm done with the drama and trouble. I want a stress-free life.
My mother pretty much raised me to be a free spirit. Anything my father would say, she would tell me, 'No, it's like this.'
I grew up in such a melting pot. There's more ethnicities in Queens than there is in any place on the planet. So you grow up knowing things about other cultures.
I'm still a huge Yankees fan. Growing up, Jeter was my guy, but Bernie Williams was my favorite player.
I'm an honorable human being. I know what to do and what not to do, and if I'm wrong, I always apologize. I'm a big enough man to do that.
Did I collect baseball cards? I've got 10 books full of plastic in my mother's house. All the Upper Decks, the Fleers, the Fleer Ultras. My grandfather brought me to the trade shows. I collected Marvel cards, too.
I pick and choose my battles, but I overthink everything because I have to think about everything.
I could never change the overall feel of my music. That's why people like me - I don't follow trends, and I don't follow crowds.
I don't put people down. I build people up. That's how I always wanna be looked at.
Penmanship means a lot to me. I don't have cursive penmanship, though. I've created my own penmanship. It's very clear. Everyone can read it. I write things down all day long.
I'm not the type of guy to go so deep with the concept songs, but there's deep thought in everything. Maybe it's not just a repetitive hook telling you what the song is about - you have to use your brain a little bit.
I get inspired in certain places. You have to write in places like Amsterdam or Paris or New Zealand, when you're standing on a yacht, looking out at the middle of the ocean.
The first rappers I ever got into were Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep, and Nas. Those are the guys. Those are the dudes that flipped my wig.
I love to cook a meal for the so-called holidays. You always need the turkey. I like making a good BBQ brisket as well.
I worked on the line, I've been an executive chef, I've worked for the Mets, I've worked for various steakhouses, vegetarian restaurants, a lot of Middle Eastern stuff. I've worked my fair share of a lot of different things. I've worked at festivals and street fairs, you know? I've been through it all.
Whenever I cook, I think of Spanish music, so I always have to listen to some sort of salsa. It gets your body going.
I don't really do playlists. I don't know how to make a playlist, honestly.
Anything that catches my ear, I'm into. Things that are different, that change what you're listening to.
I like every girl. Every kind of girl that there is, I like.
I want to do an album with Steven Seagal.
I'm a born athlete. Weight-lifting is in my blood. I used to do the powerlifting thing. I gained a little weight, but I still got it; I'm mad built.
I'm not just a normal guy. I'm a gymnast.
Albanians, we tan well! I don't burn; I bake.
Everyone is trying to make these huge songs; I just make things that I want to listen to. Music that I will be comfortable listening to 10 years from now, that's my only thing.
I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim-dude, fancy-clothes look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap - there is no other choice, or else I get eaten alive.
Billy Joel is an incredible musician. He just feels like one of the guys, you know. I grew up listening to his music.
All I can do is put out the good stuff, and people will make the decision on whether they like it. My fans are very intelligent people. They're not stupid. They know what's good.
I'm the Bjorn Boerg of table tennis.
My 9-year-old daughter can recite every line from 'Easy Rider,' and that is not an easy song to do. She raps all of Nicki Minaj and everything; she's dope. She has my musical ear for sure. She sings, and she's beautiful. It's very powerful.
New York was at the forefront of rap, so because of all the great people who have gone before me, being a rapper from Queens, I have to live up to those standards. I'm basically just a regular guy who says what he feels and likes to joke. I like long walks on the beach... and I love rap.
You can make a hit song in 15 minutes. I don't know about someone else's song, but songs that people like of mine, I've created in 15 minutes or less.
I don't even remember the last time I bought an album, honestly.
When I think of influential females in hip-hop, my mind goes to Foxy Brown, hands down.
If I would make a song dedicated to any woman, it would have to be my mom because, you know, she's been there since I came out of her. She would have to be the one... my mom or my daughter.
I don't ever have the pressure of making a hit, because I've never had a hit song, per se. The closest thing to a hit song was 'Shiraz,' and it's not your prototypical hit song, with a catchy hook and all this other stuff.
I've started getting acclimated to writing on the road and on the spot. I just let whatever I feel at the time come out, instead of really sitting there and taking days to write just one song.
I'm a piece of work, man. I will do what I want, at all times, always. Nobody's going to persuade me one way or another. I can't be persuaded. I take criticism, I listen, I analyze, but at the end of the day, I make the decisions. Because that's the way I started, and that's the way I'm going to finish.
I'm rap's vigilante. I'm out for justice.
The best rappers I know are, like, air-conditioner men.
I would say I started rapping because my friends were doin' it.
I just do whatever I do, and put it out there without tryin' to cater to anybody. If you like it, you like it.
I guess I am a rapper. It's weird to be called that, or tell someone that's your profession.
I hope I have a long career, but I really don't think about the future like that. I live, like, for right now, honestly. I take it however it comes.
I'm gonna be honest. I don't care about much. I care about people liking my music. I made it very far without nothing being on radio.