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" But you have to be creative on how you sell yourself and market yourself. "
Talib Kweli
You
Yourself
Sell
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" 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
People
You
Talk
" Well if somebody's giving me a script, I'll consider it. But it's not something I'm chasing. "
Talib Kweli
Somebody
Well
Me
" My personal take on politics is I deal with social situations and cultural situations in my music and in my life. I have said on record many times that I haven't voted. I'm not the type of person who says, 'I'm never going to vote.' I think it's clear to me that our system has failed us. "
Talib Kweli
Life
Me
Music
" That's what hip-hop is: It's sociology and English put to a beat, you know. "
Talib Kweli
Hip-Hop
Beat
Know
" 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
Music
Always
New
" The only way for me to be an artist is to be honest in my craft. If I veer from that, I'm not giving the investors what they want. Sometimes it's my job as an artist to know what I want to do, even when the fans tell me different. "
Talib Kweli
Giving
Sometimes
Me
" 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
Honesty
Fly
Hell
" 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
Doing
Know
You
" What's more condescending and corny than someone telling you how much more money they have than you and telling you basically, 'I don't care about poor people,' which is a large part of what you hear of corporate hip-hop on the radio. "
Talib Kweli
Hip-Hop
Care
Money
" 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
You
Career
Albums
" I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have people looking up to you, so whether you choose to accept it or not is a different question. "
Talib Kweli
Looking
People
Think
" 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
Story
More
Hip-Hop
" People can be inspired the way I've been inspired by music. "
Talib Kweli
Way
People
Been
" I tour whether I have album out or not. I tour more than any other hip-hop artist. "
Talib Kweli
Hip-Hop
More
Tour
" Artists look at the environment, and the best artists correctly diagnose the problem. I'm not saying artists can't be leaders, but that's not the job of art, to lead. Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte - there are artists all through history who have become leaders, but that was already in them, nothing to do with their art. "
Talib Kweli
Job
Best
Art
" Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road. "
Talib Kweli
Yourself
Road
Take Care
" 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. "
Talib Kweli
Hip-Hop
You
Think
" Once you're signed to a label you compromise. "
Talib Kweli
Label
Signed
You
" Hip-hop is a vehicle. "
Talib Kweli
Vehicle
Hip-Hop
" Things are fluid in this world, and if you don't remain fluid, you get lost in the sauce. "
Talib Kweli
Sauce
Things
World
" 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. "
Talib Kweli
Song
You
Beautiful
" You make knowledge relevant to life and you make it important for children to learn things that will really relate to things going on in their lives, and not abstract. "
Talib Kweli
Learn
Children
Life
" There are staples to my show. I have to be conscious about switching things up because I know people who saw me last year will say, 'He did that last time.' But if certain things work, they work. "
Talib Kweli
Work
Me
Time
" 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
Come
Buying
Audience
" When I look at the arc of my career, my focus is on lyricism, right? I own that. "
Talib Kweli
Right
Arc
Focus
" When I'm in the studio, I'm strictly thinking about the beats, the rhymes and the song. The decision I make once the songs are created, and there's a barcode put on the package, and I'm out there in the street selling it, those decisions as a businessman are different than the creative decisions you make. "
Talib Kweli
Decision
Decisions
Thinking
" I don't feel comfortable making empty music. "
Talib Kweli
Making
Comfortable
Feel
" The responsibility of an artist is to be honest with themselves. "
Talib Kweli
Responsibility
Honest
Artist
" I think music sharing of any kind is great. "
Talib Kweli
Sharing
Kind
Music
" 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. "
Talib Kweli
Balance
Enough
Search