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 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.
We blasted holes in the night until she bled sunshine.
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.
Speech is my hammer bang the world into shape now let it fall – HUNGH.
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.
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 don’t rap like nobody, I don’t try to sound like nobody.
I just don’t think it’s very dignified to ask people to like you. You can just wind up being somebody’s ottoman.
If it’s just fame for the sake of being famous, no one even cares about you – and you don’t even care about yourself because you’re like, “This is so ridiculous.”
Reckless capitalism kills black people.
I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture.
But even creeps deserve to live someplace halfway decent.
To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.
I’ve always loved rhyming. I love language.
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.
I thought everybody got into rock ‘n’ roll because they didn’t want to follow instructions.
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.’
Hip-Hop went from selling crack to smoking it.