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When I look at the arc of my career, my focus is on lyricism, right? I own that.

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
Arcs
Career
Careers
Focus
Look
Looks
Right
Lyricism

More quotes by Talib Kweli

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My rhymes are like shot clocks, interstate cops and blood clots, my point is your flow gets stopped.
Talib Kweli
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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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Once you're signed to a label you compromise.
Talib Kweli
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By the time you get into other kinds of music - R&B, country, or whatever - it becomes something that's romantic. It becomes something unattainable. Never-ending undying love. And in hip hop, we're still taking direct inspiration.
Talib Kweli
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A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.
Talib Kweli
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As far as my New York influence, one thing I'm proud of in my career is, I rep Brooklyn, New York all day. But people don't look at my music as New York music. People consider my music underground music.
Talib Kweli
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I will never do a record without some sense of responsibility.
Talib Kweli
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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.
Talib Kweli
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I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature.
Talib Kweli
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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?
Talib Kweli
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When I met you it was magic... We polar opposites, but attracted like we was magnets.
Talib Kweli
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I'm not an artist that has a big, huge radio record that's going to be on BET. I'm not, at this point, gunning for like, Oh, I'm gonna kill them in the first week. But as people slowly discover the album they realize it's better than a lot of what they've been listening to all year.
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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It doesn't get any more underground, conscious or indie than Macklemore, Ryan Lewis, but because they got a couple of really big pop hits, actually some of the biggest pop hits that hip-hop has ever seen, people are missing that part of their story. People are not counting that blessing.
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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Who you? Your name smaller than fine grains in couscous It's the highest calibre, your calibre is deuce deuce
Talib Kweli
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I have a luxury of people coming to see me whether I play for the crowd or not. I don't take that lightly.
Talib Kweli
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The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion.
Talib Kweli
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Jazz is the greatest American art form and our greatest export. We don't pay attention to the youth of jazz, don't stoke the fires creatively for the youth coming up. I feel like jazz musicians became too much of purists - with Donald Byrd doing funk jazz in the '70s.
Talib Kweli
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Love is blind, you just see bright light
Talib Kweli