Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) Quotes
Quotes to Explore
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I have to be able to rap. I don't have the look. I don't have the typical slim-dude, fancy-clothes look. That's not me. I have to be able to rap - there is no other choice, or else I get eaten alive.
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Back in the day, when the D.J. would be playing a record, I'd be on the mic trying to hype up the crowd. So once Public Enemy became a rap group, I decided that that's the role that I wanted to take on. I wanted to be the one that was hyping, because I've always been good at it. I can hype up any crowd.
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I think rap music is brought up, gangster rap in particular, as well as video games, every other thing they try to hang the ills of society on as a scapegoat.
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Most people think companies are basically evil. They get a bad rap. And I think that's somewhat correct.
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The first Broadway show I saw was when I was 11. I saw 'Hair.'
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I pay attention to lyrics and I know what rap fans care about. I try to write for the average listener and I'm conscious of the mainstream without selling out.
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They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus, that means guns, sex, lies, video tapes, but if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?
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I would love to do Broadway again.
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Our music attracts the people that we rap about and make music about, and they come out and actually do it.
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Not that I want to put the entire rap music style down - I just don't like it. And I know somewhere there's gotta be another guy like that. There's gotta be a guy just like that - just like me. There's gotta be somebody, somewhere... Maybe, maybe an assassin type.
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I'd dropped out of high school without really doing it on purpose - I'd just go home at lunch 'cos I didn't have friends, then stay there all afternoon listening to rap. It got to the point where I wouldn't have passed even if I'd gone back. I was depressed, basically.
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When I first got into the rap game, I had an early dream of unifying rappers.
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It is a coincidence that Mathangi is the Goddess of Music and the spoken word, which can be rap.
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I enjoy listening to contemporary rock on the college stations while I'm taking long walks, love gospel and soul music, am fascinated by hip-hop and rap as the new kind of urban 'beat' poetry and, come to think of it, find something interesting about just any kind of music.
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I don't even listen to rap. My apartment is too nice to listen to rap in.
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I really appreciate the moments that I was able to win rap album of the year or whatever.
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If I was on Broadway, I would want to do anything Vaudeville or a biopic.
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The roots of rap are originally ghetto-ised or extremely working class. So when you're an artist who's making something which isn't how its mainstream appearance should be, there's always these strange questions of authenticity and what you have to do to be 'real' as a rapper.
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My character is meant to know nothing about rap, and not to like it very much, but I know about it, because my kids make me listen to it. There's some rap I do like very much. I like Eminem, Blackalicious.
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'Pyrapshere' began as a sketch for a variety show I produced called 'A Pretty Good Show.' My partner, Andersen Gabrych, and I expanded it into a full-fledged faux-religion, including a list of 21 tenets, sacred symbols, testimonials, and even a clothing line. Many people believed it was a real thing and wanted to join.
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Sometimes you catch people's eyes during the show, which is horrible and awkward. I can always see the people in the front row, and sometimes you get people who are fast asleep. Maybe they had a long day at work, but that's an expensive nap.
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I love to communicate, and I love music. That's why I always thought not being able to hear would be a tragedy.
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I'm blacked than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle
