Abdullah Ibrahim Quotes
Music is only a means to an end - it is not the end. The concern is with the condition of man.
Quotes to Explore
-
Music was a way of rebelling against the whole rah-rah high school thing.
-
I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
-
I am kind of the front man for a team of people behind the scenes who are working just as hard as me and are putting in just as much time to make this all happen. I'm not trying to be humble. I just want everyone to get credit where credit is due.
-
I am a friend when I need to be a friend, a father when I need to be a father, a musician when music calls. I switch roles accordingly.
-
Having been on tour in countries that are extremely eco-friendly, we automatically end up doing the things that normal people do in other countries.
-
I really believed that my songs were good enough for the whole world to listen to. I had fans from America or the U.K. who would be like, 'Oh my God, I love your music'.
-
Growing up, Tina Turner was definitely one of my influences, and, um, I take things from different artists, and I put them in my music, and I put them in my persona and my - they help me form into the artist that I am, so - for people to actually hear that come through the music is exciting.
-
My father was always playing the piano. He played all kinds of music - Gershwin, all kinds of stuff.
-
Evil is always devising more corrosive misery through man's restless need to exact revenge out of his hate.
-
I moved to London to go to dance school when I was about 17, but then I realized that I didn't want to be a dancer anymore, so I dropped out after five or six weeks. All I wanted to do was sing and make music.
-
When you start putting too much thought into it, the music starts getting too revealing. You don't need to know all my inner thoughts.
-
I was bringing the whole music, hip-hop, art, break dancing and urban cultural thing to the downtown table.
-
Religion is man's attempt to bind himself back to a relationship with God.
-
I don't tend to set out on huge world domination goals or have anything in mind. I just like to play. I like to gig a lot; I like to write music.
-
Music is the best means we have of digesting time.
-
If architecture is frozen music then music must be liquid architecture.
-
But anyone who knows anything about the music industry knows it's not only about the music.
-
My music is a little dark, and my lyrics are a little darker. Every day, I'm fighting towards the light.
-
Black music has increased my enjoyment of what I do. It has increased my range, my ability to reach into myself and accept myself.
-
If a woman wants to hold a man she has merely to appeal to what is worst in him.
-
It is a sign that your reputation is small and sinking if your own tongue must praise you.
-
When we moved to England in 1986, I was ten years old and I didn't know anything about punk or hip hop. The only words I knew in English were 'dance' and 'Michael Jackson.' We got put in a flat in Mitchum, and the council gave us second hand furniture, second hand clothes and a second hand radio that I took to bed with me every night.
-
I have more energy at the end than I do at the beginning. You can be so beat up that you can scarcely walk on stage but when you get to the piano the excitement kicks in, you forget about being tired.
-
Music is only a means to an end - it is not the end. The concern is with the condition of man.
