67 Quotes by Dave East

I always wanted to do something I knew I could love to wake up and do every day, and rap was just second nature to me, growing up in Harlem. I never really had to try.

After the first three or four years of me taking rap seriously, it started to look more promising. I started booking shows and more people were playing my music, so I starting believing this could actually work for me.

I never felt like 'I'm an underground dude' or 'I can only be hot in New York.'

My father brought a basketball to the hospital when I was born, and he already had it embedded in his head that I would be a ball player.

Deep down in my heart and what I've seen and what I've been around, there is nothing better than Islam.

I want to be one of the greats. I feel like the money and all that is going to come, but I want to be a name that, like, when you say Nas or Jay Z, that's forever.

If you're a fan of anything I do, I'm always telling a story. I'm into that - I like it when you don't know if it was true or not.

I'm never gonna sell my soul or violate myself for no amount of dollars or fame.

I was incarcerated for a little while in Baltimore, and my celly was Muslim. I was watching him pray every day, and his outlook on getting out of that situation was a lot more positive than the other dudes that were Muslim in the jail.