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" I don't go into any album with pressing issues. I just try to write songs. "
Talib Kweli
Try
Write
Just
Related Quotes:
" 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
Looking
Community
Knowledge
" 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
" 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
Doing
Trying
People
" 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
" Honestly, you have to take care of yourself. That's probably something I have learned on the road. "
Talib Kweli
Yourself
Road
Take Care
" You have to learn how to harness technology so you can use it for positive stuff without being disconnected from nature. "
Talib Kweli
Nature
Technology
Positive
" I'm not an artist that has a big, huge radio record that's going to be on BET. "
Talib Kweli
Big
Bet
Record
" My kids are the most inspiring thing that pushes me. It used to be because they were born, and I had to take care of them. Now it's because my son raps, and he's better than me. So now I gotta keep up with him, you know what I'm saying? "
Talib Kweli
Better
Me
Son
" Things are fluid in this world, and if you don't remain fluid, you get lost in the sauce. "
Talib Kweli
Sauce
Things
World
" I don't feel comfortable making empty music. "
Talib Kweli
Making
Comfortable
Feel
" 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. "
Talib Kweli
Great
Rapper
Artist
" There's consciousness in my music, and my music comes from a conscious place. And when people say that, I certainly take it as a compliment. But my job, in terms of selling my music, is to be universal and to try to get it to everybody. "
Talib Kweli
Music
Job
Compliment
" As far as being on a major label, some labels get it and get what they have to do, and some labels don't. I don't think the label I'm on necessarily gets it, but I think over time they're gonna have to. "
Talib Kweli
Labels
Over
Time
" My fondest memories were watching the Beastie Boys get prepped to come on stage. They had a lot of antics and they play a lot of basketball... then they were giving out cameras to the crowd, and performing from the bleachers. The most important thing I learned was that you control your crowd, not the other way around. "
Talib Kweli
Memories
Giving
Control
" 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. "
Talib Kweli
Focus
Job
Music
" I think that I am seeing the Internet and seeing technology take and seeing how the work I do through music directly affects people's lives better than any politician I've ever met. "
Talib Kweli
Technology
Work
I Am
" 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
" Hi-Tek is on three or four songs on the new record. "
Talib Kweli
Three
Songs
Four
" 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
Know
Think
Me
" And you know, art as commerce, doesn't really make too much sense, they don't go together. "
Talib Kweli
Too Much
You
Go
" 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
" Hip-hop isn't as complex as a woman is. "
Talib Kweli
Complex
Hip-Hop
Woman
" 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
" 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
" I am not a prisoner of conscious, but people try to make me one sometimes. It is both a gift and a curse. It's a high honour but can create limitations - I have to be fluid. "
Talib Kweli
Create
I Am
Me
" 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
Better
Think
Black
" 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
" The way I see it, if people truly love my music, they will support me in some way down the road. "
Talib Kweli
Love
Me
Music
" What is Norah Jones' style? Is it just the albums that we've heard? She has a rock group where she plays guitar in, downtown in New York, so do we really know her style? "
Talib Kweli
New York
Know
Style
" I met Mos Def around that time but I didn't hook up with him until I was about 17 or 18. "
Talib Kweli
Until
Hook
Him