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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.
Mos Def
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Mos Def
Age: 50
Born: 1973
Born: December 11
Actor
Composer
Film Actor
Film Producer
Rapper
Record Producer
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Television Actor
Brooklyn
New York
Yasiin Bey
Dante Terrell Smith
Dante Beze
Black Dante
Loud
Condition
Conditions
Black
Mind
People
Represent
More quotes by Mos Def
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.
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I don't hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people - and they're helpless with it.
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I'm a passionate person. I'm a lot of things, like most people are. Most people are dynamic. The focus is not on me though, I'm a screen. The aim is to always keep myself in the position where the screen is clear.
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At its heart, music is all higher mathematics.
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There are a lot of people who call themselves teachers or leaders, but they're really just propagandists.
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Don't look down, it's an impossible view Fly like an eagle whatever you do.
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I just don't think it's very dignified to ask people to like you. You can just wind up being somebody's ottoman.
Mos Def
I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.
Mos Def
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.
Mos Def
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.
Mos Def
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. [But] it's time to expand and move on.
Mos Def
I don't care about what brand you are, I'm concerned what type of man you are, what your principles and standards are.
Mos Def
The new moon rode high in the crown of the metropolis. Shinin', like Who on top of this?
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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.
Mos Def
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.
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I'd bet a million dollars on DOOM against Lil' Wayne
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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.
Mos Def
With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn't just about being noticed, you know?
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Make today's solid ground out of yesterday's quicksand.
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If Islam's sole interest is the welfare of mankind, then Islam is the strongest advocate of human rights anywhere on Earth.
Mos Def