"More or less a whole record is ‘The Blue Album’ from Weezer. Those songs themselves are so simple in a way but they just penetrate, it’s just a great record. I remember saying back then that I wish I was in that band and had written this batch of songs because they’re so fun to play and so fun to sing, and we used to soundcheck to that whole record"

"Getting a little more progressive now, the whole math / metalcore thing of the late 90s, especially around Boston, was very much my thing at the time. Botch were a little more left field, geographically, and musically, but I still think this is probably the best album of that genre and era. I saw them a bunch of times when they were touring this and they were always totally fucking incredible."

"I parted ways with Luaka Bop maybe 10 years ago—it was taking too much of my time and my money and my house. But the label still goes on. And they’ve done wonderful things, including this album by the African electronic musician William Onyeabor a few years ago. And then they put on shows of people like myself and others performing his songs. They continue to do great things."

"I took this title for one of my songs on my third album and dedicated it to my sister; she loves this one too. The last John Cassavetes film . . . I heard he was ill throughout a lot of the making of this and, in the final scene, he waves good-bye. It’s really touching. His real-life wife, Gena Rowlands, is one of my all-time favorite actresses."

"When this album dropped I had to be nine, so I give myself a pass for missing out on this at first. It wasn't until my cousin forced me to listen to ‘I gave you power’ off of It Was Written that I realized Nas was one of the greatest, and I had some homework to do! Illmatic is one of those albums that demonstrates the highest level of lyricism possible!"