Black Star Quotes
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I'm retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I'm actually doing it.
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Well if somebody's giving me a script, I'll consider it. But it's not something I'm chasing.
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The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion.
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There's a lot of activism that doesn't deal with empowerment, and you have to empower yourself in order to be relevant to any type of struggle.
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Speech is my hammer bang the world into shape now let it fall - HUNGH
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It doesn't get any more underground, conscious or indie than Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, but because they got a couple of really big pop hits, actually some of the biggest pop hits that hip-hop has ever seen, people are missing that part of their story. People are not counting that blessing.
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I think hip-hop is no more misogynistic than America is as a society. I just think hip-hop is a lot more brash, a lot more bold, a lot more loquacious. There are a lot more words that go into a hip-hop song than go into a regular song.
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I think the line is where you're in the studio, you're creating. That belongs to you as an artist. Nothing should taint that. I shouldn't be thinking about what the fans want, I shouldn't be thinking about what the radio wants, what the label wants, what your manager wants, a song for the chicks, a song for the street.
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Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road.
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Hip-hop is a vehicle.
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If I focus on being an activist and my job is to be a rapper, I'm not going to be as good of a rapper. I need to focus on hip-hop and focus on making the music, so that when the activists come to me and they need my voice to create a platform, then I've got enough people listening to me. Not because I'm conscious, but because I'm dope.
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We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of.
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I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong. There's not a lot of regard for the property by the residents.
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A lot of these people, these program directors, just like anybody else in the world, even though they're supposed to be leaders in the world, they're followers. They follow what they think someone else is doing, instead of trying to blaze a trail.
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I think people are into me because of my music choices and my musicality.
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There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists.
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I don't feel comfortable making empty music.
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When I'm in the studio, I'm strictly thinking about the beats, the rhymes and the song. The decision I make once the songs are created, and there's a barcode put on the package, and I'm out there in the street selling it, those decisions as a businessman are different than the creative decisions you make.
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What's more condescending and corny than someone telling you how much more money they have than you and telling you basically, 'I don't care about poor people,' which is a large part of what you hear of corporate hip-hop on the radio.
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At exactly which point do you start to realize, that life without knowledge is death in disguise?
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That's what hip-hop is: It's sociology and English put to a beat, you know.
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These cats drink champagne and toast to death and pain, Like slaves on a ship talking about who's got the flyest chain
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I'm not looking to set a standard... but, I believe I have offered a challenge to others with my work.
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If you're going to do Chuck Berry, you got to, you know, go all out, and the duck walk is just kind of you know, cursory. That's like standing.