Talib Kweli Quotes

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“You'll be fooled if you only get your hip-hop from the mainstream, you know. The things that move people are not just found in the mainstream cultures. And when we talk about hip-hop in general, hip-hop's basically preoccupied with life.”

— Talib Kweli

“I not only wanted to showcase lyrical skills but also continue to drop knowledge on the hiphop community. I'm looking to elevate through my music, and through my music I educate.”

— Talib Kweli

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.

— Talib Kweli

“I think music sharing of any kind is great.”

— Talib Kweli

“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.”

— Talib Kweli

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.

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“I started rapping because I wanted people to hear what I have to say, I want as many people to hear me as possible, and I do everything in my power to make that pop.”

— Talib Kweli

“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.”

— Talib Kweli

“I think all those artists are artists who are appreciated because you believe their words and you appreciate their honesty in their music. If you don't appreciate the honesty in the music, the beat can be fly as hell but you'll never give an emcee props.”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“Once you're signed to a label you compromise.”

— Talib Kweli

“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.”

— Talib Kweli

“People consider Black Star a great album, and I think it's a classic album. But the fact is, both me and Mos Def have made better albums since Black Star.”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

I don't feel comfortable making empty music.

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“As an artist, I have to be a leader of my fans, not, like, follow them. Because if I chose to follow them, you know, they could do it. You know, it's me who's doing it.”

— Talib Kweli

“Being called 'conscious' is a great thing to be, but it's the connotations and preconceived notions that come with the buying audience about what conscious music can be.”

— Talib Kweli

“I take certain steps to make sure I'm relevant artistically. I always have new music and a reason to be on the road. I'm not just playing 'Get By' over and over. I have 12 albums.”

— Talib Kweli

“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.”

— Talib Kweli

When Occupy Wall Street happened, I took my money out of Citibank. I already had problems with all the banks - Citibank, Bank of America - but I was kind of just too lazy to take my money out until I saw how Citibank responded to Occupy Wall Street.

— Talib Kweli

“Artists make art for themselves. Art is an honest expression. Artists who pander to their fans by trying to make music "for" their fans make empty, transparent art. The true fan does not want you to make music for them, they want you to make music for you, because that's the whole reason they fell in love with you in the first place ...”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“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?”

— Talib Kweli

“Life is a beautiful struggle..”

— Talib Kweli

“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?”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“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.”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“I'm spinning records and I look across the restaurant and I see somebody who looks Asian. And I'm like, "Yo, that looks like Yoko Ono." I'm like, oh, I can just meet - that's going to be great. Then I look carefully and I'm like, "That's not Yoko Ono, that's Bruno Mars." And it was Bruno Mars. That just happened recently. I was bugging out. Because that was totally not Yoko Ono at all.”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“"Art Imitates life," of course, is that phrase by Oscar Wilde. I called that song "Art Imitates Life" because Oh No was in the studio and he actually came up with that hook. When I was trying to figure out a name for the record, it just kind of made sense.”

— Talib Kweli

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.

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli

“I support the idea that artists have to make a stand. I'm with that - you're putting the discussion on the table and you're letting people know. You're being brave as an artist and responsible to the community.”

— Talib Kweli

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

— Talib Kweli