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The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion.

Talib Kweli

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Talib Kweli
Age: 49
Born: 1975
Born: October 3
Musician
Poet
Rapper
Singer
Songwriter
Brooklyn
New York
Talib Kweli Greene
Illusion
Role
Americans
Roles
Problem
Live
World

More quotes by Talib Kweli

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My musical influence is really from my father. He was a DJ in college. My parents met at New York University. So he listened to, you know, Motown, and he listened to Bob Dylan. He listened to Grateful Dead and Rolling Stones, but he also listened to reggae music. And he collected vinyl.
Talib Kweli
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Why give you the cure when the disease makes money?
Talib Kweli
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As far as being on a major label, some labels get it and get what they have to do, and some labels don't. I don't think the label I'm on necessarily gets it, but I think over time they're gonna have to.
Talib Kweli
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Young kids should be doing music that has shock value. They'll grow out of it.
Talib Kweli
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Hip-hop isn't as complex as a woman is.
Talib Kweli
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I don't care if Rick Ross is 40 years old -- he's a misguided 40-year-old person.
Talib Kweli
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I think people are into me because of my music choices and my musicality.
Talib Kweli
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I have enough rhythm to blend at this point. I have enough rhythm to blend one song into another. But man, I have such respect for the art of deejaying. I hesitate to even call myself a deejay.
Talib Kweli
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I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have people looking up to you, so whether you choose to accept it or not is a different question.
Talib Kweli
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If you go to a college campus and you do stop and frisk, you're going to find a lot of drugs there too.
Talib Kweli
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I met Mos Def around that time but I didn't hook up with him until I was about 17 or 18.
Talib Kweli
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The beautiful thing about hip-hop is it's like an audio collage. You can take any form of music and do it in a hip-hop way and it'll be a hip-hop song. That's the only music you can do that with.
Talib Kweli
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To be honest, that whole exchange with Crunk Feminist actually made me write the song because I realize there's a lot of young women out there so hurt by the misogynistic images in hip-hop they paint it with such a broad brush stroke that they think anybody that defends hip-hop is defending misogyny.
Talib Kweli
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Well if somebody's giving me a script, I'll consider it. But it's not something I'm chasing.
Talib Kweli
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I like the fact that I can rep New York, but my style does not - I'm not trapped in a New York thing. I can do art songs with other artists and it's seamless.
Talib Kweli
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So I just had to step up how I was doing it and the moment that I stepped up and the moment I focused all my energy on that is when things started to happen. So there's a direct relationship between my inspiration and my output.
Talib Kweli
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Everybody could write, deejay, rap. Everybody could do it all.
Talib Kweli
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I try to count the blessings rather than the problems.
Talib Kweli
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They ask me what I'm writing for - I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for.
Talib Kweli
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It’s very seductive to focus on what you don’t like as opposed to celebrating all that it is that you do.
Talib Kweli