Mos Def
There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists.
I'm growing as an individual, but your always growing. All of my albums are snapshots of where I am artistically.
What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words - that's magical.
I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture.
I have no confidence issues with the impact or the quality of the music. No one in hip-hop, before this point and to this point, with all due respect, has done this.
I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.
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.
But even creeps deserve to live someplace halfway decent.
I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.
I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.
With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn't just about being noticed, you know?
Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.
To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.
Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.
What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends.
I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.
If Islam's sole interest is the welfare of mankind, then Islam is the strongest advocate of human rights anywhere on Earth.
Make today's solid ground out of yesterday's quicksand.Collection: Life
I don't care about what brand you are, I'm concerned what type of man you are, what your principles and standards are.Collection: Men
Fear not of men because men must die. Mind over matter and soul before flesh.Collection: Fear
It’s one thing to be the greatest; it’s another thing to be necessary. The best are the most necessary: those who take less than they give and love more than they hate.Collection: Hate
I dreamt that I could paint you with words, but there were no colors bright enough, black or white enough, blue or green enough...they didn't mean enoughCollection: Mean
Don't look down, it's an impossible view; Fly like an eagle whatever you do.Collection: Eagles
The moment you start thinking it's hopeless, then it is. [But], if you think it's gonna get better, it really does. Life is a test.Collection: Thinking
They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is.Collection: Destiny
Hip-hop is a beautiful culture. It's inspirational, because it's a culture of survivors. You can create beauty out of nothingness.Collection: Beautiful
Restlessness is my nemesis. It's hard to just chill and sit still.Collection: Chill
We blasted holes in the night until she bled sunshineCollection: Sunshine
We can be beautiful and feel beautiful about who we are everyday.Collection: Beautiful
I ain't no perfect man I'm tryna do the best that I can with what it is I have.Collection: Men
Live now for the promise of the InfiniteCollection: Promise
You can positively affect and change a social circumstance with art, and it’s vital that a change happens now.Collection: Art
Fame is like getting across the street. It's like, if there's nothing to be across the street for, it's a pointless destination. It's like, "I gotta get across the street, man! I gotta be there! I gotta be there!" Then you get across the street and you're like, "Yeah I'm here!" And then, that's it. Fame doesn't make you particularly happy.Collection: Men
I'm doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Yeah. I didn't exactly choose this. My own life, if it were up to me, would be very, very quiet. I'd be like a shopkeeper, a book collector, or something like that. I'm not like this. Myself as a performer and an artist is totally different from who I am.Collection: Book
Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in PlayStation...Collection: Rocks
History has proven that it's impossible to crush the artist. There's always gonna be a need for somebody to write a poem or sing a song about something, about life - that makes it real. There's the word that goes beyond the word.Collection: Crush
I think hip-hop is actually one of the most challenging things that's happened in music in a long time. The people who are in charge of what people see or hear are afraid. What you hear on top 40 or what you see on BET or MTV is not a fair representation of what is really going on...Collection: Thinking
Hip-Hop went from selling crack to smoking itCollection: Hip Hop
There was a time when hip-hop was its own musical principle, aside from sampling. Like the entire Wild Style break is instrumental. Kurtis Blow's earliest stuff was studio musicians playing. Whodini had a real clear sound, things like "five minutes of funk," stuff that you could write really beautiful, lush string and horn arrangements around, stuff that was just music.Collection: Beautiful
People don't like the music that's out now, that's on their radio stations, and they want to hear something different, but they're just the audience. You know, people will keep the TV on even if a show is on that they hate - because, unfortunately, they've been programmed to do that. [But] they are really looking for something that's gonna speak to the world that they're living in. That's what people are looking for, but they're not finding it.Collection: Hate
Man, I smashed her like an Idaho PotatoCollection: Sex
If it's just fame for the sake of being famous, no one even cares about you - and you don't even care about yourself because you're like, "This is so ridiculous."Collection: Care
I thought everybody got into rock 'n' roll because they didn't want to follow instructions.Collection: Rocks
Speech is my hammer bang the world into shape now let it fall - HUNGHCollection: Fall
At its heart, music is all higher mathematics.Collection: Beauty
There's just some dysfunctionalism with artists.Collection: Artist
Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years, it's a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment, and I feel I've done quite a bit with that name. [But] it's time to expand and move on.Collection: Moving