Talib Kweli Quotes
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My musical influence is really from my father. He was a DJ in college. My parents met at New York University. So he listened to, you know, Motown, and he listened to Bob Dylan. He listened to Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones, but he also listened to reggae music. And he collected vinyl.
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I'm not an artist that has a big, huge radio record that's going to be on BET.
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Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals.
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Learn how to heal yourself and stop fucking with them hospitals
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Everybody could write, deejay, rap. Everybody could do it all.
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Yo, I heard it's said the revolution won't be televised But in the land of milk and honey there's a date you gotta sell it by Otherwise it just expires and spoils and these folks jump out the pot when the water too hot
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Niggas with knowledge are more dangerous than niggas with guns. They make the guns easy to get and try to keep niggas dumb
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I'm spinning records and I look across the restaurant and I see somebody who looks Asian. And I'm like, "Yo, that looks like Yoko Ono." I'm like, oh, I can just meet - that's going to be great. Then I look carefully and I'm like, "That's not Yoko Ono, that's Bruno Mars." And it was Bruno Mars. That just happened recently. I was bugging out. Because that was totally not Yoko Ono at all.
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Fuck the harder way, I'm doing it the smarter way
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The most important time in history is - NOW - the present, So count your blessings cause time can't define the essence.
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When you have a voice and a platform and you know better, it becomes your moral obligation to support that community. And by extension, you're supporting your family.
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Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.
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Hip hop has always been, for us, for artists who are pure to the craft - any place overseas, whether it's Australia, any place in Asia, Germany, Africa, it becomes something where you can still go and work. Hip hop is an import culture. We're spoiled by it here. It's homegrown.
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Those who would trade in their freedom For their protection deserve neither
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By the time you get into other kinds of music - R&B, country, or whatever - it becomes something that's romantic. It becomes something unattainable. Never-ending undying love. And in hip hop, we're still taking direct inspiration.
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Just because no one can understand how you speak, Don't necessarily mean that what you be sayin is deep.
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Back in the day they stole our smile, so we clothe our teeth in gold.
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Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted, Commercial like pop, or underground like black markets. Where were you the day hip-hop died? Is it too early to mourn? Is it too late to ride?
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I just got a new manager. He's like, "So what do you want to do with the deejay thing?" I'm like, "The deejay thing for me is more my hobby." It's great when you can supplement your income, when you have a weekly or something, it's fun. It's really a hobby, because I don't want it to take away from what I do, which is emceeing.
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Michael Bloomberg is a sensible guy. He's just privileged. He's a goddamn billionaire, and he or his family members have never had to deal with anything as remotely degrading as stop and frisk. So he has no point of reference.
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They ask me what I'm writing for - I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for.
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I have a luxury of people coming to see me whether I play for the crowd or not. I don't take that lightly.
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They hope for the Apocalypse like a self-fulfilling prophecy Tell me when do we stop it? Do they ask you your religion before you rent an apartment? Is the answer burning Korans so that we can defend Islamics?
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I look at the deejay thing as a tier thing. If I'm not going to compete on that level, I'm just going to do it as a hobby.