Talib Kweli Quotes About Hip Hop
-
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.
→ -
Hip-hop isn't as complex as a woman is.
→ -
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.
→ -
Hip-hop is a vehicle.
→ -
Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.
→ -
God gave us music, so we play with our words.
→ -
But there's so many things in life like women, like children, like God and family that transcends the world of hip-hop.
→ -
Life without knowledge is death in disguise.
→ -
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.
→ -
I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it.
→ -
I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature.
→ -
Just because no one can understand how you speak, Don't necessarily mean that what you be sayin is deep.
→ -
Hopefully, we learn to appreciate hip-hop here so that it doesn't go the way of jazz.
→ -
The beautiful thing about hip-hop is it's like an audio collage. You can take any form of music and do it in a hip-hop way and it'll be a hip-hop song. That's the only music you can do that with.
→ -
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?
→ -
Unfortunately hip-hop is so competitive that in order for fringe groups to get in, you gotta be better than whoever's the best. So before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible.
→ -
You gotta get back to your essence, Use your gifts and share your presence, Don't count your dollars 'til you count your blessings.
→ -
Why give you the cure when the disease makes money?
→ -
So I think hip-hop is moving and is going to continue to move in the direction of rappers just being honest with themselves, whether you're talking about Common and Mos Def or Nas and 50 cent.
→ -
Who you? Your name smaller than fine grains in couscous It's the highest calibre, your calibre is deuce deuce
→ -
When I met you it was magic... We polar opposites, but attracted like we was magnets.
→ -
A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.
→ -
Homosexuality in hip-hop is an extension of homosexuality in the black community. The black community is very, very conservative when it comes to homosexuality, and I don't mean conservative in the good way, like we're saving money. I mean very intolerant.
→ -
We speak the love language, they speak from pain and anguish. Some don't love theyselves, so they perception is tainted.
→ -
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.
→ -
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.
→ -
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?
→ -
A true artist does not depend on radio for success. A true fan does not let radio determine what they support
→ -
The materialism, the brashness, the misogyny - everything in hip-hop is amplified. Misogyny is a good example of something that is completely amplified in hip-hop. I do think there is more than enough of a balance, though, for fans who are willing to search it out.
→ -
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.
→
Related Authors
-
Immortal Technique Rapper -
Daniel Dumile Hip-hop artist -
Lauryn Hill Singer-songwriter -
Q-Tip Rapper -
Jean Grae Hip-hop artist -
Pharoahe Monch Rapper -
J Dilla Record producer -
Ghostface Killah Rapper -
-
Common Hip-hop artist -
Nas Rapper -
Mos Def Actor -
Kendrick Lamar Recording Artist -
Kanye West Songwriter -
Don Lemon Journalist -
-
Lupe Fiasco Rapper -
Jay-Z Rapper -
KRS-One Rapper -
Busta Rhymes Rapper