Quote

I have tried to write songs quickly that get scrapped. I've also taken a long time on songs that get scrapped because you can over-think something, and you've squeezed the life out of it. As opposed to work of art, it looks like a really great work of craftsmanship.

Boots Riley

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Boots Riley
Age: 53
Born: 1971
Born: April 1
Film Director
Musician
Rapper
Record Producer
Screenwriter
Songwriter
Chicago
Illinois
Raymond Lawrence Boots Riley
Long
Song
Something
Write
Craftsmanship
Really
Art
Squeezed
Time
Also
Opposed
Think
Looks
Quickly
Thinking
Great
Tried
Life
Writing
Songs
Like
Work
Taken

More quotes by Boots Riley

Image
A lot of us don’t get a sense of our personal power. I know the vast difference that one person can make in changing things.
Boots Riley
Image
I just make music based on what I believe.
Boots Riley
Image
What the media is playing is what people want is really a false idea. Capitalism and people who control the market have a large hand in everything. It doesn't have anything to do with figuring out what the crowd wants to hear. It has to do with the media deciding what they think people want to hear.
Boots Riley
Image
Sometimes it takes time to get into what ideas actually mean to you. Even when you're not writing a song, it's like that.
Boots Riley
Image
I always write knowing that people will hear it, but also hoping they'll see it. So a lot of times I make lyrical decisions based on what looks better. Also I write based on what I saw for a video. I obsess over lyrics in the hopes that they'll endure in different ways. I'm very precious about it.
Boots Riley
Image
I lived in Detroit until I was six. My older sister was living with us, and she listened to the Ohio Players and Stevie Wonder, so I grew up listening to stuff like that.
Boots Riley
Image
It's usually important to me to get my idea out first because a lot of times my ideas will seem weird to musicians.
Boots Riley
Image
I wanted to write a song about sexism, but I didn't want to do it in a mechanical way and be like, Don't be sexist! because that's not how I talk in regular life.
Boots Riley
Image
In reality, I know I'm not hurt directly by sexism however, my life is made less because of it, so I started thinking about the fallout from relationships in which people feed off each other.
Boots Riley
Image
I think there's something your hormones do that makes a chemical change in the way you think.
Boots Riley
Image
I had no idea how much the stuff I was doing was affecting people outside Oakland. At the time, also, hip hop wasn't able to tour because all these clubs that let hip hop come in now, they would never have let hip hop come in.
Boots Riley
Image
I am a person who always feels like I am not doing the right thing because there's always so many things that need to get done.
Boots Riley
Image
I thought there were too many songs about people's personal lives.
Boots Riley
Image
Death to the pigs is my basic statement.
Boots Riley
Image
A lot of what we say and do are regurgitated things that have to do with what we think we're supposed to be saying and doing.
Boots Riley
Image
I was an avowed professional revolutionary by the time I was 15.
Boots Riley
Image
What I'm trying to do is make music that people relate to, that talks about ideas that are personal but also make that connection to trying to make revolutionary change, and I don't need to change my music to get to a certain audience.
Boots Riley
Image
In high school, everybody rapped. You just pounded on the table.
Boots Riley
Image
People give out compliments because it's polite.
Boots Riley