Mos Def Quotes

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.

It's one thing to be the greatest; it's another thing to be necessary. The best are the most necessary: those who take less than they give and love more than they hate.

Hip-Hop went from selling crack to smoking it

And from the moment that I saw you, I knew you was trouble,
But I disregarded detour signs,
And did not stop til you was mine.
I guess God was like, 'Aight, fine.'
Careful what you wish for, cause you just might get it in heaps.
Try to give it back, He be like, 'Nah, that's yours to keep.'

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 and I feel I've done quite a bit with that name and it's time to expand and move on.

You can positively affect and change a social circumstance with art, and it's vital that a change happens now.

When people say, 'I don't see you enough,' well just because you don't see me don't mean I don't exist, or just 'cause you haven't heard me don't mean I haven't been making noise. But if I keep making noise, you'll pick up.

I don't mind being black. I'm black out loud. It's more than the people that they are, it's the condition that they represent.

There was a time when hip-hop was its own musical principle, aside from sampling. Like the entire Wild Style break is instrumental. Kurtis Blow's earliest stuff was studio musicians playing. Whodini had a real clear sound, things like "five minutes of funk," stuff that you could write really beautiful, lush string and horn arrangements around, stuff that was just music.

If you're going to do Chuck Berry, you got to, you know, go all out, and the duck walk is just kind of you know, cursory. That's like standing.

We blasted holes in the night until she bled sunshine

Speech is my hammer bang the world into shape now let it fall - HUNGH

Make today's solid ground out of yesterday's quicksand.

It wouldn't be fair to cast aspersions on an entire cultural movement based on the actions of a few. To quote my grandfather, 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch.'

I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong. There's not a lot of regard for the property by the residents.

Beef is not what Jay said to Nas;
Beef is when the working folks can't find jobs.

My Umi said shine your light on the world, shine your light for the world to see

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.

They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is.

I don't have advice for people on how to dress. People should dress based on what they find beautiful. My best advice: Keep your clothes clean.

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.

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.

I stretched my arms towards the sky like blades of tall grass
The sun beat between my shoulders like carnival drums
I sat still in hopes that it would help my wings grow
So then I could really be fly
And then she arrived
Like day break inside a railway tunnel
Like the new moon, like a diamond in the mines
Like high noon to a drunkard, sudden
She made my heart beat in a now-now time signature
Her skinny canvas for ultraviolet brushstrokes
She was the sun's painting
She was a deep cognac color
Her eyes sparkled like lights along the new city
She lips pursed as if her breath was too sweet
And full for her mouth to hold
I said, "You are the beautiful, the stress of mathematics."
I said, "For you, I would peel open the clouds like new fruit
And give you lightning and thunder as a dowry
I would make the sky shed all of it's stars, light and rain
And I would clasp the constellations across your waist
And I would make the heavens your cape
And they would be pleased to cover you
They would be pleased to cover you
May I please, cover you, please

I tell people all the time, I've always loved music and I love the language, which is a huge reason why I'm part of theater. But, I didn't wanna do all of this. I would've been satisfied to do it, like, on the weekends among friends, and to have a regular job.

I'm blacked than midnight on Broadway and Myrtle

We can be beautiful and feel beautiful about who we are everyday.

To me, the job of the artist is to provide a useful and intelligent vocabulary for the world to be able to articulate feelings they experience everyday, and otherwise wouldn't have the means to express in a meaningful and useful way.

You've got to validate every day. There are those who just put a stamp on it and say, "This is gonna be a good day and I'm not gonna let anything else make it a bad day."

Crack mothers, crack babies and AIDS patients
Youngbloods can't spell, but they could rock you in PlayStation.

I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.

I can't take it y'all
I can feel the city breathin
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving

It's difficult to really be an artist nowadays. People are just on another page. You have a society that needs you to say something, but they don't want to give you the environment to be able to be just a functioning, happy, normal person. It's like, the industry is at odds with you, the society is at odds with you. You start to live in this very confined box where it's like, It's "me" and "them."

There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists.

Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

Hip-hop is rock & roll. What the hell is Wu-Tang but Motorhead?

I began to fear that Mos Def was being treated as a product, not a person, so I've been going by Yasiin since '99. At first it was just for friends and family, but now I'm declaring it openly.

Hip-hop is the last true folk art.

Live now for the promise of the Infinite

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.

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.

I don't want to waste anyone's time or money. I want to give people some truth and positive heart lift.

My presence speaks volumes before I say a word.

I was taught when there's somethin' you can change around keep quiet, you got nothin' to complain about.

I've always loved music and I love the language, which is a huge reason why I'm part of theater.

Every time you ask yourself where hip-hop's going, ask yourself where you're going; how are you doing?

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

Restlessness is my nemesis/ It's hard to just chill and sit still

That idea of peace and love toward humanity shouldn't be nationalistic or denominational. It should be a chief concern for all mankind.

Breathe in ... inhale vapors from bright stars that shine,
Breathe out ... weed smoke retrace the skyline.

History has proven that it's impossible to crush the artist. There's always gonna be a need for somebody to write a poem or sing a song about something, about life - that makes it real. There's the word that goes beyond the word.

Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.

I have mad brims.

I never had any ambitions of being a movie star or anything like that, but you know, this is nice.

To me, it's like happiness is about happiness, but happiness is a fight.

I thought everybody got into rock 'n' roll because they didn't want to follow instructions.

Hip-hop is a beautiful culture. It's inspirational, because it's a culture of survivors. You can create beauty out of nothingness.

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.

You want to know how to rhyme, then learn how to add. It's mathematics.

This thing called rhymin' is no different than coal minin';
We both on assignment to unearth the diamond.

I'm retiring the Mos Def name after 2011. I'm actually doing it.

Man, I smashed her like an Idaho Potato

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different.

I'm just an artist and I'm doin' what I like to do.

I'm trying to get low. People's personalities can get in the way of their own work.

The moment you start thinking it's hopeless, then it is. [But], if you think it's gonna get better, it really does. Life is a test.

I get reminded a lot of the time that my life is a little bit different, but I'm just trying to keep it as regular as possible because I like it that way.

And remember don't high post when you're far from home, and high posting when you're all alone.

I've always loved rhyming. I love language.

I don't care about what brand you are, I'm concerned what type of man you are, what your principles and standards are.

So rather than really have, like a close relationship to anything that's coming out today, people are just, they've got it on as background music. It's kind of the same way the cabdrivers use music; it's very disposable. But, that doesn't mean there aren't a great number of artists who are doing things to change that.

All the things that are worth doing, take time.

Why did one straw break the camel's back?
Here's the secret:
The million other straws underneath it.

I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture.

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.

I'm growing as an individual, but your always growing. All of my albums are snapshots of where I am artistically.

I ain't no perfect man I'm tryna do the best that I can with what it is I have.

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.

The new moon rode high in the crown of the metropolis. Shinin', like Who on top of this?

Why do I need ID to get ID?
If I had ID, I wouldn't need ID.

The test in life nowadays is just trying to keep yourself charged up with enough good feeling. It's like, "OK what am I going to do to feel really good today?" Not like, some chick or a drink ...

Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.