Lawrence "Kris" Parker Quotes
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I used to let the olde english 8- suds bubble in the last car of the Franklin Avenue shuttle
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We [black people] don't respect our elders. Besides artists, we don't respect Frederick Douglass. We don't respect Martin Luther King. You look at every Martin Luther King Boulevard out here, and it's a crack block. That's not because of white people. That's because of black leadership. We just have that problem, and it's something that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to conquer.
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I think that hip-hop should be spelled with a capital "H," and as one word. It's the name of our black people culture, and it's the name of our identity and consciousness. I think hip-hop is not a product, but a culture. I think rap is a product, but when hip-hop becomes a product, that's slavery, because you're talking about people's souls. To me, that's the biggest problem.
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If you're a conscious rap artist and you're worried about Billboard charts, you're gonna have a problem.
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I break an emcee off proper Yo don't check me, Ask your Moms and Pops, Yo they respect me, But here you stand, tryin' to get yours, but gettin' nothin' You probably can't spell "Boogie Down" or "Productions"
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Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal, MC's spit rhymes to uplift their people.
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The whole world is conscious. It's just that we become conscious at times, and you become conscious when you lose a parent, or just a loved one, period - a wife, a brother, you know. You wake up and say, "Man, it's real. I don't need this pimp gangster stuff anymore, I need something with a little more substance." And there is marketing for that.
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Real men are real friends, showing their real commitment.
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When I say hip-hoppers, I mean black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Everybody. Hip-hop has united all races. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people, religions, and occupations to meet on something. We all have a platform to meet on now, due to hip-hop. That, to me, is beyond music. That is just a brilliant, brilliant thing.
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You know something, it's best no to have what you need because then, you start looking for what you need and make it what you need.
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You can't expect to be on MTV and critique George Bush. You can't expect to be on BET or the cover of 'The Source' advocating Jesus Christ or Buddha or Hindu Krishna or Moses. As a conscious rap artist, you have to play in the arena that you're supposed to be in. What is that arena? That arena is the college market. The conscious rap artist woos the college market, even though the college market is the wildest, most sexed-out, drug-driven market in the country, possibly the world.
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Rebel, renegade, must stay paid.
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You know, you don't see with your eyes You see with your brain And the more words your brain has The more things you can see
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I grew up in them streets, like everyone else but instead of pushin' drugs, I pushed knowledge of self
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I make intelligence cool. I make spirituality cool. If we can make one's devotion to God cool, then I think I did a great thing. I can rest in peace.
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Black people are just constantly immature in their thinking, undisciplined, and we suffer as a people. This is not about race in the sense that black people got to get something better than whites or Latinos or Asians. This is just basically that we keep complaining about what we don't have and what we can't do, and then, when we get in positions to do stuff, we fight amongst ourselves like savages.
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Too many MC's take that word 'emcee' lightly; They can't Move a Crowd, not even slightly.
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Educate yourself make your world view bigger, visualize wealth, and put yourself in the picture
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I'm not an executive. I can do it, I have the mind for it, but there's a life that you have to lead, and you have to give up your creative freedom. That's what I don't want to give up.
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Yo Premier, why these rappers so soft? They corny ass raps be makin me doze off.
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The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.
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I haven't come to tell you I've got juice I just produce, create, innovate on a higher level
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Hip-hop as a culture itself goes through stages. It grows - it's breathing, living. I've noticed that we usually start off conscious, then we wind up very highly sexual, and then we thug it out. Then things get a little funny again, with comedy and that kind of thing.
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I think music should be free. I think all communication should be free. I think people should respect artists, and there should be a certain respect for artists who give their music away for free. If your music winds up on Napster and you approve of it, then the person downloading your music should at least go to your concert, should at least purchase your songs.