Quotes By Mos Def

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.

Reckless capitalism kills black people.

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.

I'm trying to get low. People's personalities can get in the way of their own work.

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

But even creeps deserve to live someplace halfway decent.

I can't control what people think. I'm not trying to manipulate people's thoughts or sentiments. I write all the time. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. It's machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different.

Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.

I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong. There's not a lot of regard for the property by the residents.

I don't have advice for people on how to dress. People should dress based on what they find beautiful. My best advice: Keep your clothes clean.

Focused. I'm a hustler. And my hustle is trying to figure out the best ways to do what I like without having to do much else.

I don't hate nobody. I hate certain conditions that are inflicted upon the people - and they're helpless with it.

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

And remember don't high post when you're far from home, and high posting when you're all alone.

Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.

My presence speaks volumes before I say a word.

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.

It wouldn't be fair to cast aspersions on an entire cultural movement based on the actions of a few. To quote my grandfather, 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch.'

That's what I've been trying to strive for - to draw a clear picture, to open up a new dimension.

Bob Marley performed the 'One Love Peace' concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There's always been that in black music and culture in general. It's no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what's going on in black life. It's not unusual for hip-hop.

I guess something that you love to do, you gotta ease up off it and give it a little space, come back and be fresh to it.

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.

I didn't want to have to deal with having any moniker or separation between the self that I see and know myself as.

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 and it's time to expand and move on.

I have mad brims.

I don't wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don't get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn't interested in that.

It's possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by black people. You don't have to be a thug to get love from black people.

I don't want to waste anyone's time or money. I want to give people some truth and positive heart lift.

I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.

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?