KRS-One Quotes

You are not doing hip hop; you ARE hip hop.

I'm not saying I'm number 1, oh sorry I lied.. I'm number 1,2,3,4 and 5

Hip-Hop is being spoken through spirituality ... Meaning that you'll be able to listen to it spiritually for yourself.

I make intelligence cool. I make spirituality cool. If we can make one's devotion to God cool, then I think I did a great thing. I can rest in peace.

Cops just surrounding me with pistols everywhere.
They put me in the backseat of their car handcuffed,
Pushed out them chests like they're big rough and tough.
A cop come and said 'You'll never sell your guns now.'
I said 'It doesn't matter, you'll sell them anyhow.
You take the guns from me, you sell them for a fee;
Anyway you put it, they'll get in the city!'

Hip-hop as a culture itself goes through stages. It grows - it's breathing, living. I've noticed that we usually start off conscious, then we wind up very highly sexual, and then we thug it out. Then things get a little funny again, with comedy and that kind of thing.

If you're true to the upliftment of people and the unity of people, raising the self-worth of people, then you live within your means. But the problem is that we're looking at the grass on the other side, saying, "That's greener. I want to be in the thug market, but I want to be a conscious rap artist." It doesn't work like that.

There could never really be justice on stolen land.

So you think that hip-hop had it's start out in Queensbridge, If you popped that junk up in the Bronx you might not live.

Educate yourself make your world view bigger, visualize wealth, and put yourself in the picture

Kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent

Yo Premier, why these rappers so soft?
They corny ass raps be makin me doze off.

It's not that you don't make any money doing conscious rap music. You make a lot of money doing this, but if you're greedy and you're not satisfied with $500,000 a year, and you want $2 million a year, then you will suffer as a conscious rap artist.

Rap is something you do Hip Hop is something you live

The God of your understanding, has chosen you and you've agreed
To be here in this space and time to do something, that only you can do
Now I won't stand here to try and tell you what it is
But deep, inside yourself
As you take time to uncover, and ask yourself some vital questions
Like - what is it that brings me peace, what is it that brings me joy?
What do I love doing?
What am I willing to become highly skilled at doing?
What part can I play for the betterment of the society
And the world in which I want to live?
When you begin to ask yourself those real questions
And it doesn't have to be done in a formal way
It can be done just like we're speaking, right now
Ask yourself the question
Look at how you see yourself in just a year from now
And then go forward
And if you have children or even if you don't have children
Now begin to, look at your future beyond
The space and time that you are
Now visualize exactly, the way that you desire to live
Don't be afraid to, dream

You got to have style, and learn to be original.

Black people are just constantly immature in their thinking, undisciplined, and we suffer as a people. This is not about race in the sense that black people got to get something better than whites or Latinos or Asians. This is just basically that we keep complaining about what we don't have and what we can't do, and then, when we get in positions to do stuff, we fight amongst ourselves like savages.

I think that all journalists, specifically print journalists, have a responsibility to educate the public. When you handle a culture's intellectual property, like journalists do, you have a responsibility not to tear it down, but to raise it up. The depiction of rap and of hip-hop culture in the media, I think, is one that needs more of a responsible approach from journalists.

I'm not an executive. I can do it, I have the mind for it, but there's a life that you have to lead, and you have to give up your creative freedom. That's what I don't want to give up.

Too many MC's take that word 'emcee' lightly;
They can't Move a Crowd, not even slightly.

The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.

I haven't come to tell you I've got juice
I just produce, create, innovate on a higher level

Are you tired of lyrical liars, passing fliers,
Wannabe MC's, but really good triers,
Tripping over mic cords, getting you bored,
A total fraud, this kind of thing I can't afford!

You know, you don't see with your eyes
You see with your brain
And the more words your brain has
The more things you can see

Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal,
MC's spit rhymes to uplift their people.

If Hip Hop has the ability to corrupt young minds, it also has the ability to Uplift them.

It's just hypocrisy on hip-hop's part to cry racial profiling when your race is on TV acting like fools.

You sleep with a man, that's your husband. So make sure before you lay down, you love him.

Don't you think it's time we thought about the future? Whether our children are gonna be winners or losers

Teach the student what needs to be taught.
'Cause black and white kids both take shorts
When one doesn't know about the other one's culture,
Ignorance swoops down like a vulture.

Stop the negativity and control our creativity

Hip-hoppers are not interpreting what hip-hop is, and when we do interpret it, we interpret it as something immature, unorganized, and outlaw.

You know something, it's best no to have what you need
because then, you start looking for what you need
and make it what you need.

You were put here to protect us.
But who protects us from you?

As a conscious rap artist, you should not want to be in a gangster market. You should be trying to establish your own market, create a place where you can be yourself and make some money and feed your family.

I'd rather make one righteous dollar on my level
Than make a million dollars spittin' rhymes for the devil.

No [other rappers are on my level], none of them. Here, let me put it like this in the sky, there are a million stars, but when the sun appears, you see none of them. I am the sun.

The single most important contribution that I can offer, the strengthening of people's spirit and soul, the strengthening of families, the unity of a husband and a wife. To me, that's most important. Without that, we have nothing. If a son doesn't respect a father, if a child doesn't respect a parent, then we're lost.

Trust in God, that's where the crown is at. It's not in what you get, it's what happens after that.

If I were to critique myself - step out of KRS objectively and look at him - I would say that KRS has introduced the concept of being hip-hop, not just doing it. The concept of rap as something we do, while hip-hop is something we live. The concept of living a culture. Don't just look at hip-hop as rap music, see it as a culture.

I break an emcee off proper
Yo don't check me,
Ask your Moms and Pops,
Yo they respect me,
But here you stand, tryin' to get yours, but gettin' nothin'
You probably can't spell "Boogie Down" or "Productions"

Do you ever think about when you outta here?
Record deal and video, outta here!?
Mercedes Benz and Range Rover, outta here!?

I am the manifestation of study,
NOT the manifestation of money.
Therefore, I advance through thought,
NOT what's manufactured and bought.

Believers of Jesus be denouncing Satan on every level,
But every Halloween they're dressin' like devils.

Take a look at the police and how they treat you,
Take a look at these corporations that cheat you.
Democrats and Republicans are all see-through.
Now we votin for the lesser of two evils ...
Man, don't let 'em deceive you.
This is an autocracy, not a democracy,
But to call this a democracy without mock interest
In the laws of society? That's called hypocrisy.

When I say hip-hoppers, I mean black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Everybody. Hip-hop has united all races. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people, religions, and occupations to meet on something. We all have a platform to meet on now, due to hip-hop. That, to me, is beyond music. That is just a brilliant, brilliant thing.