Talib Kweli Quotes

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.

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

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.

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.

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.

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

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.

Life without knowledge is death in disguise ...

Hip-hop isn't as complex as a woman is.

Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road.

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.

When I met you it was magic ...
We polar opposites, but attracted like we was magnets.

If lyrics sold then truth be told/I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z.

This goes out to freedom fighters, graffiti writers, innocent lifers, grassroots organizers

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

Young kids should be doing music that has shock value. They'll grow out of it.

I think music sharing of any kind is great.

But it becomes disrespectful when the artist's process is not respected.

Well if somebody's giving me a script, I'll consider it. But it's not something I'm chasing.

I'm at a loss for words. But even my loss is amplified.

I don't feel comfortable making empty music.

Life is a beautiful struggle..

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

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

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

Love is blind, you just see bright light

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

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.

The responsibility of an artist is to be honest with themselves.

Hip-hop is a vehicle.

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

When you shine bright, some won't enjoy the shadow you cast.

Woman are complex creatures.

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

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

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

You have to know when to be arrogant. You have to when to be humble. You have to know when to be hard and you have to know when to be soft.

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

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

That's what hip-hop is: It's sociology and English put to a beat, you know.

Please, this is no disrespect to whoever your man is though. This relationship is strictly musical like D'Angelo

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.

I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature.

I don't care if Rick Ross is 40 years old
he's a misguided 40-year-old person.

Coltrane had a sax, Dale Earnhardt drives a race car and everybody has their tools.

Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion. Everything else is a distraction.

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

Why give you the cure when the disease makes money?

Just because no one can understand how you speak,
Don't necessarily mean that what you be sayin is deep.

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 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.

There just needs to be a gay rapper who's better than everybody. That's when that question will no longer be able to be asked.

I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs.

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

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.

You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.

A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.

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

I ignored your aura but it grabbed me by the hand, like the moon pulled the tide, and the tide pulled the sand.

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.

God gave us music, so we play with our words.

I'm not an artist that has a big, huge radio record that's going to be on BET.

People can be inspired the way I've been inspired by music.

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

Hi-Tek is on three or four songs on the new record.

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

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

You gotta get back to your essence,
Use your gifts and share your presence,
Don't count your dollars 'til you count your blessings.

A true artist does not depend on radio for success. A true fan does not let radio determine what they support

I'm not looking to set a standard ... but, I believe I have offered a challenge to others with my work.

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

Everybody could write, deejay, rap. Everybody could do it all.

Things are fluid in this world, and if you don't remain fluid, you get lost in the sauce.

We get high on all types of drugs when, all you really need is Love

War is not civilized.

And you know, art as commerce, doesn't really make too much sense, they don't go together.

Fortunately, artists can live off their works, if you're creative at how you do it. If you just depend on the videos and the radio, you're at a loss.

Before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible.

The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion.

If I'm performing with a DJ, it's all on me to draw the energy. I like the camaraderie of a band.

The most important time in history is - NOW - the present,
So count your blessings cause time can't define the essence.

Once you're signed to a label you compromise.

You gotta eat right, you gotta have healthy habits, you know, and balance out your decadence with a healthy lifestyle during the day.

Consider me the entity within the industry without a history of spitting the epitome of stupidity.

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.

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

You have to learn how to harness technology so you can use it for positive stuff without being disconnected from nature.

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