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" With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn't just about being noticed, you know? "
Mos Def
Style
Purpose
You
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" I'm trying to get low. People's personalities can get in the way of their own work. "
Mos Def
Trying
People
Own
" You're not gonna get through life without being worshipful or devoted to something. You're either devoted to your job, or to your desires. So the best way to spend your life is to try to be devoted to prayer, to Allah. "
Mos Def
Job
Allah
You
" I don't want to waste anyone's time or money. I want to give people some truth and positive heart lift. "
Mos Def
Heart
Truth
Time
" I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13. "
Mos Def
Exposure
First
Got
" I'm inspired by playwrights, novelists, poets: The value of language has been a lifelong passion of mine. I enjoy it. I'm good at it. "
Mos Def
Language
Good
Passion
" I've always loved rhyming. I love language. "
Mos Def
Rhyming
Language
Loved
" Reckless capitalism kills black people. "
Mos Def
Reckless
Black
Capitalism
" You want to know how to rhyme, then learn how to add. It's mathematics. "
Mos Def
Mathematics
You
Learn
" Everything's got space between it, the planets, trees, your eyes. Your eyes get too close together, it's a whole different world. You can lose perspective. "
Mos Def
Eyes
Together
Space
" I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that. "
Mos Def
People
Space
Now
" In the early '90s, when I really started to find my voice, I was reading a lot of books, and I was moved by the writers, like Chinua Achebe, and I wanted to be able to write rhymes that were as potent as what I was reading. "
Mos Def
Voice
Early
Like
" If 'Life in Marvelous Times' can't get on the radio, then I don't need to be on the radio. "
Mos Def
Need
Marvelous
Life
" That idea of peace and love toward humanity shouldn't be nationalistic or denominational. It should be a chief concern for all mankind. "
Mos Def
Peace And Love
Love
Humanity
" I'm growing as an individual, but your always growing. All of my albums are snapshots of where I am artistically. "
Mos Def
Growing
Your
Individual
" Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate. "
Mos Def
People
Good
Vocabulary
" I'm just an artist and I'm doin' what I like to do. "
Mos Def
Doin
Artist
Like
" I'm an independent thinker. And I'm not the poster child for any movement. I'm trying to support whatever's right no matter where it is. "
Mos Def
Support
Trying
Right
" Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years. It's a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment. "
Mos Def
Me
Environment
Culture
" I have no confidence issues with the impact or the quality of the music. No one in hip-hop, before this point and to this point, with all due respect, has done this. "
Mos Def
Respect
Confidence
Music
" It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people. "
Mos Def
Thug
Artist
Black
" Hip-hop is the last true folk art. "
Mos Def
Art
Last
Hip-Hop
" African art is functional, it serves a purpose. It's not a dormant. It's not a means to collect the largest cheering section. It should be healing, a source a joy. Spreading positive vibrations. "
Mos Def
Joy
Purpose
Art
" There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists. "
Mos Def
Leaders
Just
Call
" I've been fortunate with my acting career. A lot of scripts come to me. I don't mind auditioning if something that requires that, but I haven't had to in awhile, which is a nice place to be 'cause I've been on quite a lot of auditions in my life. "
Mos Def
Life
Place
Nice
" I guess something that you love to do, you gotta ease up off it and give it a little space, come back and be fresh to it. "
Mos Def
Love
Back
Fresh
" I didn't want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as. "
Mos Def
Myself
Separation
Want
" I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody. "
Mos Def
Person
Feel
Music
" I was taught when there's somethin' you can change around keep quiet, you got nothin' to complain about. "
Mos Def
You
Quiet
Change
" I'm retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I'm actually doing it. "
Mos Def
Name
Retiring
Actually
" Twitter freaks me out. You have followers? It feels so obsessive and proprietary. "
Mos Def
Me
Feels
Out