Tory Lanez Quotes
Rapper
My mom died when I was 11 years old.
I'm a fan of LeBron James. I'm not really a team fan; I'm just a fan of one player.
I like to turn the venue into a jungle gym, into my playground.
If you try to be better every day, more miracles happen in your life.
Swavey is a musical genre that I came up with to describe artists who are too talented to stay in a box with their music.
I'm here to compete. I'm here to be number one.
Every time I do something in life, I try to outdo myself.
I think people have to look at it from a certain view. I say things because, at the end of the day, I can say whatever I want.
I just pray to God and make sure I'm good with God.
The stars played out the way they were supposed to play out, and I'm in the position I'm supposed to be in.
I don't write anything down - it comes from my head and my soul and my heart and my pain. That allows me to make the best music I can make.
Everything that comes out of Canada musically, I support. I support Toronto 100% because I'm on the side of the music.
I'm a big Justin Bieber fan. I've been a Justin Bieber fan. I've been listening to his music. OG, you know. That's also my friend, too, so, you know. It's just one of those things. We've been supporting each other's music for a long, long, long time.
What, do you think I'm here to be second place, brother?
Me personally, I don't think I'm even hot enough to be getting dissed.
I'm a very cultural person, and Canada is a very cultural place.
Singing is one of the most important components to me. That's kinda how it all started.
It's not the fact that your single can sell. It's the fact that you can sell hard tickets. People will spend money to see you.
Everyone is friends with each other, and you have to like what's hot. You have to do all these things as if there's no real feelings. As if you can't dislike something any more. We all just have to be buddy-buddy.
I'm here to be the greatest.
I started rapping because my mom died when I was about 11 years old, and I was a very rebellious kid. I've been kicked out of every school I've ever been in since 6th grade on, expelled and dropped out in the 11th grade. Music was the only thing that I could really use to express myself, so I started rapping.
The reason why I called it 'I Told You' is because I wanted to show people that I have been doubted, and I have been in the face of adversity. Coming out of that situation, this is my 'I told you' moment.
I don't have a problem with anybody in Toronto.
When I get to a certain level, I'll start going by Daystar.
I just freestyle. I don't actually write the words on paper. It's just whatever comes into my mind. I'll record three or four lines at a time, get a good take, and do three or four more. It may be whatever comes into my mind. But I care about my craft a lot more than a lot of other people.
I'm thankful to God that my life changed, but I'm also still on my grind.
I don't have beef with nobody... You know when it's beef, because then we just start playing scoreboard, and nobody wants to play scoreboard.
The way that I learned to be confident was I would ride the back of the city bus and sing very low.
A lot of times, people won't be 100 percent real with their story, and I wanted to give people the drawn-out experience of the perseverance and the struggle that it took to get here.
My outlook was, 'You're not my moms; you can't tell me what to do.' I got expelled from about 20 schools.
I do a lot of writing. People don't actually know how much writing really I do.
I ended up moving downtown with these three dudes that I didn't really know. I came into the house, and I didn't realize how things worked. From, like, 15-18, I was just fighting them. I fought, like, every day, and these were, like, older dudes. It was every man for himself.
Drake could diss me 20,000 times, and I would never diss him. I'm a fan.
There's no album in 2016 that's better than my album.
I have a lot of fans, but a lot of people don't know who I am.
I love 50 Cent. I know it sounds weird 'cause a lot of kids might not say that right now, but I definitely want to work with 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Coldplay: I want to work with different artists that are going to push my music to a new level. Not just in urban music.
You're gonna know, if I have beef with somebody, then one of us is just falling out.
The only thing is, with me - this may sound weird - there are a lot of R&B singers from that era that I actually don't know. Like, I never grew up on Boyz II Men.
I was being very bad because I didn't know how to express myself. Music gave me an outlet to express myself and channel that anger.
'I Told You' is for all the people who've been doubted, the underdogs.
I don't develop anything. I don't practice, I don't rehearse. I just go out there, and it's just amazing and unpredictable and spontaneous every single time. It's the most cultivating incredible performance that you can go and see live for the amount of money that you can see it for.
I go through the same kind of situations as other people. I have to give that to people, because people have this facade, this mirage, this mirror about me.
That's why, to this day, K.I.S.S. can sell out wherever they go... because they sell tickets, and they have that core fan base. You may not hear K.I.S.S. on the radio with a new single today. And they can still sell out anywhere.
For me personally, my favourite part of performing is just going in the crowd and doing crazy things that they never expected to see. Challenging myself to do new things that I never expected to do. That's the biggest thing for me.
To be selling out shows and these kids who don't speak English singing along every word? It's wild.
I have a lot of money, but I still feel broke. When I say I feel broke, I don't mean broke in a financial sense, but I still feel like that kid from the gutter who's still trying to get it, even though I'm at the place I want to be.
God put me on this earth to bring souls back to the Kingdom of God. You don't need to pray ten times a day - you just need hope. My music is going to stop war; it's the healing music. I see myself in Brazil, in Syria, in Darfur, and places where they really need hope.
I underestimated the power of 'Diego.'
I'm just a young kid.
People live their lives through melodies. If you can't sing, then music is worthless.
I still direct my own videos.
I can look at you and say, 'I'm gonna be the biggest artist in the world' because, at the end of the day, it's about the trust I have in God. He's already shown me that I'm gonna fulfil my destiny.
Usher is definitely somebody I came up listening to.
People who couldn't walk, they'd come in wheelchairs, and he'd make them walk. It's just the power of God. It wasn't my dad; it's what God had instructed my dad to do.
I just want to work with the big people and the people who make great music.
I definitely want to work with Kanye, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande - all the big people.
We just want to be No. 1. Is there a problem with that? Can I be the best? Can y'all watch me be great? Will y'all allow me to do that?
One of my favorite reggae songs is Wayne Wonder's 'No Letting Go.' And Sizzla 'Give Me A Try.' That's one of my favorite songs as well.
People have to remember this - I've literally been going at this music thing since my mother passed away.
I'm like one of those dudes who organically have talent.
I started singing to this one John Legend record; it was called 'Each Day Gets Better,' or something like that. I started to realize, 'Wow, I really sound like this dude. If I keep doing this, maybe I can sound dope like John Legend and still rap.'
My favourite singers are people like R. Kelly and people like that.
I like the music from Drake. I like the music from PARTY. I like music from The Weeknd, Justin Bieber.
I know why I'm here. I know why I was placed in music, and it's not by coincidence.
I'm getting money over here. I'm good, I'm young, I'm finally in a position to feed my family; please don't take that away from me.
I don't have no personal problems with nobody.
Hip-hop is a contact sport.
Swavey is the movement. Three words... It's Unique, it's true, and it's yourself. It's a very unique thing: it's true to yourself, and it's all about you just being yourself.
When the 'greats of all-time' put out their first albums, it wasn't a thousand features on it. And I'm one of the greats in my eyes.
I'm not a singer. I'm not an R&B singer. I'm an artist.
I dropped out of school; I got fired from my job. Those were my roughest moments, but I always knew through it that I was going to be great.
I'm definitely more of a rockstar than anything.
Reggae goes in and out. It sounds so good, it feels so good and feels so tropical, but the problem is not everybody is Caribbean. Not everyone is going to sound authentic doing it, and sometimes it comes off cheesy when other people do it.
I'm not a hater. I've expressed this before.
The whole 'I Told You,' there's nothing written. That was all out of the feeling. That's why the album is so incredible to me - it's all out of the heart; I didn't take time to pre-calculate it.
I always try to show there's a way for the kids that feel like they're lowlives. In anything you want, you can be the greatest at it, even without school, if you want. Know your route.
There's a different energy at one of my shows than anybody else's.
It doesn't take long to make catchy songs. That's not my problem.
I would like to work with The Weeknd. That's my boy, though; that's my friend.
I'm here to be the guy that rubs people the wrong way sometimes.
That's what made me a man, having to fend for myself and being in a situation where there is no dad, no grandma, and no mom to help you. It changed the person that I am today.
I try to make music, all kinds of music, whether it be singing or rapping.
Subconciously, the things you listen to and you believe in, those things are going to come out, you know what I mean? I think you take that and make it your sound; that's what I do when I'm putting together genres of music.
I believe later in life I'm gonna change my name when I start making the right music.
Swavey, it puts more than one genre of music together. That's the approach I have with all music I do.
I never grew up on Jodeci. I never grew up on things like that 'cause my dad was a preacher, and he kind of kept us away from music like that.