Dave East
Dave East

Being self-made is a state of mind, and once you put that mentality to work, your success will come.

Dave East
Dave East

My journey is self-made because I came from nothing. It's the best feeling now, because I don't really feel like I owe anybody.

Dave East
Dave East

A lot of people change for good. Some people just fall off. Just trying to progress in anything, no matter what you're doing, I feel like any progression you makeā€¦ some people aren't gonna be around you that were around you.

Dave East
Dave East

No matter how dope you are, if you ain't really built, if you ain't put that groundwork in, you gonna flop. Nobody gonna fill those arenas.

Dave East
Dave East

You're born a certain way, but you don't gotta die like that.

Dave East
Dave East

It took mad failures for me to start to win.

Dave East
Dave East

I'll never give up my style.

Dave East
Dave East

I stand out. I don't really think I fit in with the 'what rap is' today. I feel like I stand out because I'm talking about me and my homies and stories from my life. I ain't really trying to have you turnt up all day.

Dave East
Dave East

I wanna be in a movie, I wanna have a clothing line, I wanna put myself in a position where, when I'm dead and gone, or I can't rap anymore, that's still moving. Tupac and Biggie, they've been dead 10-plus years and people talk about them everyday. I'm gonna try to speak everything into existence. I know the music is my key to get there.

Dave East
Dave East

Islam really brought a discipline to my life that I didn't really have before. My old mindset was if they ain't helping me, I ain't helping them, but you can't live life that way.

Dave East
Dave East

A lot of creativity coming from the east side of Harlem. It really built my character and who I am.

Dave East
Dave East

I'm never really trying to focus on one aim.

Dave East
Dave East

I got it tatted on me, ā€˜born broke, die rich.'

Dave East
Dave East

A big part of what kept me focused on the music was already failing with basketball. I played basketball all of my life. When basketball didn't work, I knew that I had to make it in whatever I decided to do next.

Dave East
Dave East

I always had a gift with writing. I can really write. I always felt like I can write movies or somehow get into that.

Dave East
Dave East

Everybody knows I smoke, drink, and be up in the club, but I don't want that to be my entire thing. I want them to see me get up and go to the gym after a night of clubbing.

Dave East
Dave East

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.

Dave East
Dave East

Growing up in Harlem, I was always in the parks playing ball.

Dave East
Dave East

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.

Dave East
Dave East

I feel like a lyricist is somebody that writes their own lyrics. Now songwriters and lyricists are two totally different things. You can't really be a lyricist if you didn't write your lyrics. There's no passion, there's nothing in it coming from you. It's somebody else's feelings and you just taking it and running with it.