Talib Kweli Quotes

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.

Once you're signed to a label you compromise.

Even an independent label is looking for a hit, they're not looking for a record that's not gonna do well.

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.

We commute to computers Spirits stay mute while you eagles spread rumors We survivalists, turned to consumers.

Harry Belafonte hit me to the Dream Defenders and I liked what they were about. When I asked them how I could help their movement, they said, "You can help by coming down here; you can tweet."

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.

Who you? Your name smaller than fine grains in couscous It's the highest calibre, your calibre is deuce deuce

My rhymes are like shot clocks, interstate cops and blood clots, my point is your flow gets stopped.

The way I see it, if people truly love my music, they will support me in some way down the road.

If you go to a college campus and you do stop and frisk, you're going to find a lot of drugs there too.

I try to count the blessings rather than the problems.

It’s very seductive to focus on what you don’t like as opposed to celebrating all that it is that you do.

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.

My fans like to be romantic. I feel like I'm creating at least at the same level or even a higher level of creativity than I was at twenty-one. I've gotten better as an artist.

Being called a conscious rapper is quite a compliment. It's a great thing to be. But as an artist, my nature is to not be in a box.

Truthfully I wanna rhyme like common senseNext best thing I do a record with common sense

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.

I tour whether I have album out or not. I tour more than any other hip-hop artist.

The founder of Crunk Feminists is a Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, but then you attack somebody for saying you should approach a problem with love, you're not being a true Christian.

I have a luxury of people coming to see me whether I play for the crowd or not. I don't take that lightly.

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.

My parents are my biggest influences. My parents and my city. Brooklyn, New York, New York City, the community I grew up. I don't feel like I'm special in that. I feel like that's everybody.

When I look at the arc of my career, my focus is on lyricism, right? I own that.

Or is it the mind state that's ill, creating crime rates to fill the new prisons the build

Why give you the cure when the disease makes money?

I think music sharing of any kind is great.

We speak the love language, they speak from pain and anguish. Some don't love theyselves, so they perception is tainted.

But you have to be creative on how you sell yourself and market yourself.

What is Norah Jones' style? Is it just the albums that we've heard? She has a rock group where she plays guitar in, downtown in New York, so do we really know her style?

Love is blind, you just see bright light

They ask me what I'm writing for - I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for.

I was kind of just too lazy to take my money out of the bank until I saw how Citi Bank responded to Occupy Wall Street.

I remember looking back on a photo of me... wearing a suit that was, like, two sizes too big for me. I think a lot of guys don't know what fits.

I met Mos Def around that time but I didn't hook up with him until I was about 17 or 18.

I gotta be dope first. I gotta be appealing to your senses, and to what you like first. Then the message happens. Then you relate to the message.

If you look at my career, doing albums with Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake, Gucci Mane and Lil Wayne or KRS-One and Jean Grae, I can't be pigeonholed.

I don’t think that early hip hop stood out to be a social critique. A lot of fans of mine think that hip hop’s ultimate responsibility is to critique social structures.

Hopefully, we learn to appreciate hip-hop here so that it doesn't go the way of jazz.

But there's so many things in life like women, like children, like God and family that transcends the world of hip-hop.

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.

I think people are into me because of my music choices and my musicality.

Just because someone has great content doesn't mean you like them as a rapper.

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.

Music is not an exact science so depending on the time and the mode and the energy when we do it that will determine what happens with it.

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.

I'd like to work with Outkast, I'd like to work with RZA, I'd like to work with Timbaland, York, a whole bunch of people.

I will never do a record without some sense of responsibility.

I was always rhyming and doing it for the love before I found out I was gonna have children and when I found out, doing it for the love wasn't enough.

I think its man's nature to go to war and fight.