Welcome to the world of Big Daddy Kane, where words flow like poetry and rhymes reign supreme. Big Daddy Kane, born Antonio Hardy, is a legendary figure in the realm of hip-hop, known for his smooth delivery, razor-sharp lyricism, and undeniable stage presence. Emerging during the golden era of rap in the late 1980s, Kane quickly rose to prominence with his groundbreaking albums and electrifying performances.
As one of the pioneering artists of the genre, Big Daddy Kane’s influence stretches far and wide, shaping the landscape of hip-hop for generations to come. His clever wordplay, intricate rhyme schemes, and confident swagger have left an indelible mark on the culture, earning him respect and admiration from fans and fellow musicians alike.
Explore the wisdom, wit, and lyrical prowess of Big Daddy Kane through the quotes below. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, motivation, or simply a dose of nostalgia, these quotes encapsulate the essence of one of hip-hop’s most iconic figures.
I believe that music is infinite. Big Daddy Kane
My view is that I would love to see people united and loving one another, working with one another, supporting one another. I think that’s a beautiful vision, so anybody trying to bring that about, I’m all for it. However, I would hate to see people pretending to unite people just for the sake of relocating them. Big Daddy Kane
I want to be remembered as a combination of Malcolm X and Marvin Gaye, a strong black leader and a sexy entertainer. Big Daddy Kane
I was a Barry White fan. Big Daddy Kane
I was going to different neighborhoods around Brooklyn battling cats back in – this started in ’82, so that’s like eighth grade. Maybe 13, 14. Big Daddy Kane
I’m used to being respected for what I do, and I’ve watched as my peers – Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte – do the same thing and I remember the ones before me – LL, Run-DMC – how it was for them. I think we were able to achieve what we achieved because we watched the generation before us. Big Daddy Kane
To me, fresh means you’re in something new, something that looks real nice… and something put together creatively. Big Daddy Kane
Whatever form of hip-hop you like, man, love it and keep it going. Keep it strong. Make sure it stays powerful. Big Daddy Kane
I’ve always called Puff like the greatest promotion person in this world – for himself and for his artists – better than anybody I’ve ever seen in my life. Big Daddy Kane
He’s definitely someone who helped mold and shape hip-hop with his music. I would put him in the category of James Brown, the Honeydrippers and Chic. He gave the B-boys and B-girls a track to dance to, but it would only be a DJ or an MC who knows who Billy Squier is. Big Daddy Kane
Yeah, if you go too far, like there’s some rappers that use words that just be a little too out there, it makes it where someone doesn’t really know what you’re talking about and don’t really have the time to sit and try to understand. Big Daddy Kane
Once you appreciate an art form, you’re open to everything. Big Daddy Kane
I always loved slow jams and wanted to make them, but didn’t know how I could because I couldn’t sing. Then Barry White made ‘Love Serenade’ in which all he did was talk the entire jam. I said, ‘I can do that.’ Big Daddy Kane
When somebody tells me, ‘The Source magazine had you in the Top 5 emcees,’ I’m like, ‘Okay, that’s cool.’ The other four may not be who I consider dope emcees. Big Daddy Kane
When hip-hop was new and raw, it was all about being an MC. You wanted to be respected as a lyricist. But as the years passed and hip-hop became big business, hip-hop became like country, rock and pop. And so you now have people who write the songs for rappers. Big Daddy Kane
It’s the type of thing where, if you gonna battle somebody to prove your greatness, you wanna go to somebody that shares that same seat with you. Big Daddy Kane
Rap is good for politics because when you make a rap record, you put good music on a track and people listen to you. It’s easier than trying to preach. Big Daddy Kane
I made songs in the late ’90s and the early new millennium that didn’t succeed very well, but songs that I made in the late ’80s, early ’90s, they stood the test of time. I respect those songs for keeping me relevant. Big Daddy Kane
The flow that I use, I really developed my rap style in the mid ’80s based on Grandmaster Caz from the Cold Crush Brothers, from listening to him. That’s like really who I pretty much patterned my style from and I just really took it to another level once I had the opportunity to get out amongst the world myself. Big Daddy Kane
Being acknowledged as one of the best is enough for me. Big Daddy Kane
Good rap records don’t get too far, but rap records that are made for crossing over to white audiences do go a long way. Big Daddy Kane
After ‘Long Live the Kane,’ I toured the world as an entertainer seeing so much more. My mindstate was so much broader. Big Daddy Kane
I think that a lot of times you have artists that try to deliver a positive message. Big Daddy Kane
A kid will be like, ‘Yo, you’re Big Daddy Kane. My father listens to you!’ It kind of makes you feel like one of the Platters or Temptations or something. You feel like you’re super-old. But then again on the flipside it’s cool to see like someone that’s two or three generations after you excited. Big Daddy Kane
I think that Kool Moe Dee birthed Rakim, Rakim birthed Nas. Big Daddy Kane
Early on I was a fan of Grandmaster Caz of the Cold Crush Brothers. I liked the way that he used a bunch of words to rhyme together in one line. And I picked up sarcasm by watching the older cats at the barbershop. They were just out there talking and saying slick lines to one another. I also got inspiration from Smokey Robinson. Big Daddy Kane
Ol’ Dirty used to come out to Queens and spend the night at my crib a whole lot. Big Daddy Kane
There’s so many different styles, but with me I just chose battle rap because I mean, I felt like that was the way to get people to really respect me. Big Daddy Kane
There’s rappers out there that don’t even know how to rhyme. They take someone else’s words and go with it. To each his own. Big Daddy Kane
To me hip-hop is a culture and I became an MC to be recognized as a dope lyricist. That’s what I wanted to be recognized as. So when I’m writing rhymes I always take it very seriously. Big Daddy Kane
Shyheim, I took him on the road with me on the Budweiser Superfest. He was like 15 years old, too young to be on a tour sponsored by a beer company. Big Daddy Kane
I’m just glad that people look at me as a legend. Big Daddy Kane
Shame is something that’s man-made. Big Daddy Kane
My best album is probably my second one, It’s a ‘Big Daddy Thing.’ I like a lot of the songs on there. It was put together… just the structure of the album was tight. Big Daddy Kane
I hope everybody out here is supporting hip-hop and trying to make it continue on. Big Daddy Kane
Eminem is a major star. Em and JAY-Z have achieved things that I have never came close to achieving in my life. They are both major stars in Hip Hop. And to top it off, they are both very lyrical. Big Daddy Kane
I watch a lot of the YouTube battles: Goodz, Loaded Lux, I’m into stuff like that. Big Daddy Kane
Life ain’t a piece of cake for me. Big Daddy Kane
I love old school music, that’s just always been my thing. Big Daddy Kane
I totally understand, believe in, and support Black Lives Matter. Big Daddy Kane
You know for some strange reason I like to write the verse first. I mean I know the majority of people do the chorus first and when I think about it, I guess it does make more sense to do the chorus first, but I just like to write the verses first, I don’t know why. Big Daddy Kane
I went to this club in North Carolina and saw Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings perform. Just looking at the demographics of the audience, I thought it was interesting. A few weeks later, I was at the same spot to see Talib Kweli perform. And 60-70 percent of the crowd were the same people. Big Daddy Kane
It’s like do White privilege exist? Absolutely. In the case of passing judgment, you have to make sure that you’re passing judgement on the right person. Big Daddy Kane
What can I say? I like breaking ground and exploring new things. Big Daddy Kane
I always thought that was very important, to be able to deliver great lyrics and also put on a great performance, to have that type of visual where people would take to it, where they’d want to dress like you or have pictures of you hanging up on the wall. Big Daddy Kane
Premo is one of those producers that I’ve always had a lot of respect for. I’ve always thought that he’s just extremely talented. More importantly, he’s one of those dudes that just sticks to his formula, like if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Big Daddy Kane
People were taking off $5,000 gold chains to wear little $10 leather medallions that represented peace because that’s what Public Enemy was about. Big Daddy Kane
When people in the street say, ‘You’re in my top five,’ that means the world to me. Big Daddy Kane
I wanted to be different. I wanted to address everyone. I wanted to address the hood, but also the people that was getting money. I wanted to address the men and women, the kids and the adults. Big Daddy Kane
I don’t want people to think that I’m bigger or better than anyone out there. Big Daddy Kane
I mean it’s always good to document your history. ‘Cos for some strange reason black history has a tendency of getting lost. So I think it’s beautiful to have the ability to document it. Big Daddy Kane
When I started working on my sophomore album, I’d seen more. Big Daddy Kane
Raleigh feels like home. It has before I even moved here. During the late ’90s I just fell in love with this city. Big Daddy Kane
My song ‘Smooth Operator,’ I think that’s a real simple, easy, sing-a-long kind of song. It’s not too complicated. Big Daddy Kane
I have a lot of love for Long Island. Big Daddy Kane
I just wanted to be the best MC. I wasn’t about owning a Bentley. I wanted to be recognized as the illest MC. Big Daddy Kane
The Lifted Crew, I think that they’re a great band that plays great soul music. They may have studied a lot of soul, but really, their heart and soul is in hip-hop. Big Daddy Kane
I was a big fan of Marvin Gaye, and when my parents were at work, I would get in front of the mirror, put my father’s clothes on and pretend I was singing Marvin Gaye songs. Big Daddy Kane
Rakim is a great rapper, but, you know, he’s not a battle rapper. Big Daddy Kane
It’s all about the family tree, there’s a family tree. You know Melly Mel birthed KRS-One, KRS-One I think birthed Tupac. Big Daddy Kane
What earns my respect is… I love great lyricists, artists that can create incredible rhymes or incredible songs. The same thing goes if you’re a singer. I definitely respect that. Big Daddy Kane
I think ‘Long Live the Kane’ was pretty much a real boxed-in mindset with me just doing what I represented in the hood. Big Daddy Kane
I wasn’t one of those artists where people throw my song and just dance to it. People actually listened to the lyrics. Big Daddy Kane
I think that when it comes to emceeing that there’s so many different approaches. You have your party rappers, which pretty much is where it all originated from. With DJ Hollywood, Lovebug Starski, Eddie Cheeba, and all those guys in the ’70s. Basic party rap. Big Daddy Kane
You never hear a country-western station saying ‘We have old school artist Willie Nelson in the house.’ They say ‘We have the legendary Willie Nelson.’ Big Daddy Kane
When I came up with KRS-One and Rakim, everybody had to step their lyrical game up to build a fan base. Big Daddy Kane
If I hadn’t gone on the road with Patti LaBelle, then I wouldn’t have brought Jay-Z on the road with me. When I saw her leave the stage to change clothes and allow the background singers to keep the show going, I said, ‘That’s something I wanna do.’ So in the middle of my show, I would leave the stage and Jay-Z would come out and rhyme. Big Daddy Kane
Me personally, I think that when I take my time with something, it comes out a lot better, because I can really, really get my point across, and if I see that like, this might be a little too deep, I figure out a way to dumb it down so that everybody can understand where I’m going. Big Daddy Kane
Me and Rakim were always clear that we were rivals. Big Daddy Kane
With New Edition it would get to the point where kids would have their New Edition posters; say like it was in a household of sisters. Each sister would have also have an individual poster of the member of New Edition that they liked. Now that’s star power. Big Daddy Kane
I think that a lot of battle rappers have a difficult time making songs because they don’t know how to do a song format. They’re so stuck in that whole battle rap mentality that really all they want to do is just kick rhymes. Big Daddy Kane
Actually, I was supposed to battle Rakim back in ’89. Big Daddy Kane
Production-wise, ‘Looks Like a Job For… ‘ is an incredible album. I think that the weak point of the album was really me. Big Daddy Kane
I like Ludacris; I think that he’s a complete artist. I think that he makes great records; I think that he is a great lyricist and at the same time I think he knows how to have fun. Big Daddy Kane
Think that I started taking emceeing very serious probably from the very beginning. Because I started as a battle rapper. It was something that I was doing hoping that I could hang with my older cousin. Big Daddy Kane
I got to meet and work with Barry White, Quincy Jones, Patti LaBelle, even. Big Daddy Kane
I don’t get too political in my music, because some people tend to get bored with the message: I say what’s necessary and leave it at that. The books of Malcolm X go deeper than any song. But entertainers can be educators. Music touches the soul. Knowledge touches the mind. When you combine the two, you capture the whole. Big Daddy Kane
Prince of Darkness?’ I don’t know what the hell I was doing. Big Daddy Kane
I feel that in the music industry there are so many artists it’s easy to be forgotten because it’s so cluttered. Big Daddy Kane
One of the smartest things I ever did was move to North Carolina. Big Daddy Kane
I realized pretty much everything I did wrong with ‘Long Live the Kane’ and went right back in and did ‘It’s a Big Daddy Thing,’ because now I had a more universal approach. Big Daddy Kane
White people moving into Brooklyn, I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think that’s fine and I think that’s beautiful, but to hear about certain black people whose rent is getting hiked up so high and they’re not able to get leases renewed. Now that I think is wrong. Big Daddy Kane
I remember Luther Vandross had turned me on to Versace in 1990. I remember a girl ironing the jeans for me and she was, like, ‘What the hell are these? What’s Vercayce?’ Big Daddy Kane
I have ultra-strong respect for women that respect themselves. Big Daddy Kane
I just think it was because I was known as a lyricist that’s what people only wanted to hear that from me. If you’re an artist you have to expand, you have to grow. Big Daddy Kane
I love hip-hop and I’d love to see it grow. Big Daddy Kane
I love when big things happen for Brooklyn. Big Daddy Kane
If you call ‘Rapper’s Delight’ an old-school record, I agree with you. If you call Sugar Hill Gang old school, I agree with you. Not because they came out in ’79 or ’80, but because in 2002, that’s still the way Hank and Mike rhyme. Big Daddy Kane
If you come on stage rocking the same LRG shirt and Ed Hardy jeans that two people in the crowd have on, then what makes you different than them? Big Daddy Kane
R&B stations don’t say ‘We have old school artist Ronald Isley in the house.’ They say ‘We have the legendary Ronald Isley.’ But if I come do an interview, they’re gonna say ‘We have old school rapper Big Daddy Kane in the house.’ We belittle ourselves, our music and our culture. It’s hard for a lot of legendary artists in hip-hop to overcome. Big Daddy Kane
I had fun working on films. Big Daddy Kane
If you’re White then yes, you have White privilege. It’s there for the taking if you choose to use it, you know, just keeping it 100. Big Daddy Kane
I knew how to be a voice for L.A., I knew how to be a voice for Detroit, I knew how to be a voice for London, I knew how to be a voice for Amsterdam. Big Daddy Kane
I respect artists that know how to be artists, that know how to create their own lane and make people respect them for who they are and what they represent. Big Daddy Kane
I have my views, and I’m always willing to share them. Big Daddy Kane
Rakim is a great lyricist. To me, it was always beautiful to be compared to him. Big Daddy Kane
Rap songs don’t always have to have a message. They can be done for pure entertainment or just to get a laugh. Big Daddy Kane
I think that all lives matter, but I think that the reason we say Black Lives Matter is because, for some reason, it seems like there’s a lot of people in America that don’t realize that we want to be treated as equal as police treat a white person that gets pulled over. Big Daddy Kane
In a certain way, rap music is alternative. Big Daddy Kane
Now if you call ‘Ain’t No Half-Steppin’ ‘ or ‘Raw’ an old-school song, I agree with you. But if you call Big Daddy Kane an old-school artist, I disagree with you. Big Daddy Kane