Awkwafina

I am American. If you drop me in Seoul, I don't think I'm going to thrive there. ”

I guess, like, I've always listened to rap, and I remember I specifically started listening to, like, pop-rap when I was, like, 11, you know, like Shaggy. I love Shaggy. And then I discovered, like, underground rap when I got to high school, and really, that's when it kind of blossomed. I don't feel like my love for rap blossomed off of Shaggy. ”

It's definitely a privilege to be able to do what you love to do; it's not something that everyone gets to do, so I feel really good about that. ”

Let's take Taylor Swift. She lives in a huge beautiful apartment; she gets limo-ed everywhere. She's not seeing what it means to live in New York. ”

I have lived in this city my whole life and have seen the way gentrification has changed it. I'm not necessarily against transplants, as 75 percent of my good friends, roommate, and boyfriend are not native New Yorkers. ”

My mom passed away when I was 4 years old, and she came from a very conservative Korean background. I feel like my life would've been incredibly different had she still been alive. ”

I'm torn between wanting to connect with what I grew up with and what's available, living in Brooklyn. I don't have a grimy supermarket that decapitates frogs' heads nearby. ”

Rap was started by black people and, thus, is at the foundation of black culture. So people cannot always wrap their minds around someone like me being inspired by it. But if you listen to the things we're saying, they're authentically us. ”

My grandma was very traditional, but she herself is a rebel of that culture. ”

Other female rappers are overly sexual, have no wit, and their lyrics are so generic. I want to change the game to make rap that shows I'm not a normal female rapper - it's not about how rich I am, how much sex I have, or how many boyfriends I have. That's just not me. ”