Live now for the promise of the Infinite.
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.
I’m doing exactly what I was supposed to do. Yeah. I didn’t exactly choose this. My own life, if it were up to me, would be very, very quiet. I’d be like a shopkeeper, a book collector, or something like that. I’m not like this. Myself as a performer and an artist is totally different from who I am.
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.
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.
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.”
Fame is like getting across the street. It’s like, if there’s nothing to be across the street for, it’s a pointless destination.
You can positively affect and change a social circumstance with art, and it’s vital that a change happens now.
I give a damn if any fan recalls my legacy, I’m trying to live life in the sight of GOD’s memory.
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.
I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.
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 have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions.
If Islam’s sole interest is the welfare of mankind, then Islam is the strongest advocate of human rights anywhere on Earth.
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.
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.
What I take from writers I like is their economy – the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words – that’s magical.
I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I’m cool with that.
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.
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.