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And you know, art as commerce, doesn't really make too much sense, they don't go together.

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
Make
Commerce
Sense
Doesn
Art
Together
Much
Really

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What is Norah Jones' style? Is it just the albums that we've heard? She has a rock group where she plays guitar in, downtown in New York, so do we really know her style?
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I look at the deejay thing as something - I'm good at it because I have my own music. I have enough rhythm to blend at this point.
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I try to count the blessings rather than the problems.
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Once you're signed to a label you compromise.
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When I look at the arc of my career, my focus is on lyricism, right? I own that.
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Hip hop has always been, for us, for artists who are pure to the craft - any place overseas, whether it's Australia, any place in Asia, Germany, Africa, it becomes something where you can still go and work. Hip hop is an import culture. We're spoiled by it here. It's homegrown.
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Being called a conscious rapper is quite a compliment. It's a great thing to be. But as an artist, my nature is to not be in a box.
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With Prisoner of Conscience, the focus was - I've worked with Madlib, High Tech, Kanye West, J Dilla. I feel like I've worked with some of the greatest of all time. That's been overlooked. That's been overshadowed by the weight of the lyrics.
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I listened to a mind joint, and I wanted to do my own version of it, and what you hear on my mixtape is my take on what the whole CD sounds like.
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You have to know when to be arrogant. You have to when to be humble. You have to know when to be hard and you have to know when to be soft.
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There just needs to be a gay rapper who's better than everybody. That's when that question will no longer be able to be asked.
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No one likes to be treated like people in minority communities. What it's saying is that because you're poor, because you live in a neighborhood that deals with oppressed conditions, you deserve to be treated like a criminal. In our Constitution it says you have the right to live without illegal search and seizure.
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When you have a voice and a platform and you know better, it becomes your moral obligation to support that community. And by extension, you're supporting your family.
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Artists make art for themselves. Art is an honest expression. Artists who pander to their fans by trying to make music for their fans make empty, transparent art. The true fan does not want you to make music for them, they want you to make music for you, because that's the whole reason they fell in love with you in the first place.
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I tour whether I have album out or not. I tour more than any other hip-hop artist.
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Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals.
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Love is blind, you just see bright light
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The materialism, the brashness, the misogyny - everything in hip-hop is amplified. Misogyny is a good example of something that is completely amplified in hip-hop. I do think there is more than enough of a balance, though, for fans who are willing to search it out.
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They ask me what I'm writing for - I'm writing to show you what we're fighting for.
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I'm at a loss for words. But even my loss is amplified.
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