- All Quotes
-
My rhymes are like shot clocks, interstate cops and blood clots, my point is your flow gets stopped.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
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.
Talib Kweli Black Star
-
I have enough rhythm to blend at this point. I have enough rhythm to blend one song into another. But man, I have such respect for the art of deejaying. I hesitate to even call myself a deejay.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
Artists make art for themselves. Art is an honest expression. Artists who pander to their fans by trying to make music "for" their fans make empty, transparent art. The true fan does not want you to make music for them, they want you to make music for you, because that's the whole reason they fell in love with you in the first place.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
I don't care if Rick Ross is 40 years old -- he's a misguided 40-year-old person.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
If you ain't using all the talents God provided you with For the betterment of Man, understand, You ain't nothing but a waste.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
Hip hop is at its essence a folk music, because it speaks the language that people are still speaking at ground zero, it speaks the language that people speak on the streets.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
I listened to a mind joint, and I wanted to do my own version of it, and what you hear on my mixtape is my take on what the whole CD sounds like.
Talib Kweli Black Star
-
I see that happening with hip hop purists now. Where you have an artist like a Kendrick [Lamar] or a Drake, who are really trying different things emotionally, different things musically, and on a mainstream level. And you have underground hip hop fans dissing it, for the simple fact that it's mainstream - not because what they're doing is whack, or what they're doing is not sincere.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
I feel like people mislead themselves when they tell themselves they're into me because of the lyrics. From my vantage point, people aren't into me because of the content, because of the lyrics. Because there's a million of rappers who have great content.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
People didn't really take white rappers seriously until Eminem, because he was better than everybody. Like female emcees, you need to be like Lauryn Hill or Nicki Minaj or killing everything before somebody takes you seriously.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
If you go to a college campus and you do stop and frisk, you're going to find a lot of drugs there too.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
Who you? Your name smaller than fine grains in couscous It's the highest calibre, your calibre is deuce deuce
Talib Kweli Black Star
-
I look at the deejay thing as something - I'm good at it because I have my own music. I have enough rhythm to blend at this point.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
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.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
Let me finish my music, and let me present it the way I want to present it. And then share it, put it online, do whatever you want to do after that.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
I have a luxury of people coming to see me whether I play for the crowd or not. I don't take that lightly.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
As far as my New York influence, one thing I'm proud of in my career is, I rep Brooklyn, New York all day. But people don't look at my music as New York music. People consider my music underground music.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
But there's so many things in life like women, like children, like God and family that transcends the world of hip-hop.
Talib Kweli Black Star
-
You see somebody rapping and you're like, "Nah, my cousin can do that." You're spoiled by the experience. Overseas, it's still something that people can appreciate.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
No one likes to be treated like people in minority communities. What it's saying is that because you're poor, because you live in a neighborhood that deals with oppressed conditions, you deserve to be treated like a criminal. In our Constitution it says you have the right to live without illegal search and seizure.
Talib Kweli Black Star -
A true artist does not depend on radio for success. A true fan does not let radio determine what they support
Talib Kweli Black Star -
You gotta get back to your essence, Use your gifts and share your presence, Don't count your dollars 'til you count your blessings.
Talib Kweli Black Star