Latest KRS-One Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I think that hip-hop should be spelled with a capital "H," and as one word. It's the name of the culture, and it's the name of the identity and consciousness. I think hip-hop is not a product, but a culture. I think rap is a product, but when hip-hop becomes a product, that's slavery, because you're talking about people's souls.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Thinking, Soul

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think that all journalists, specifically print journalists, have a responsibility to educate the public. When you handle a culture's intellectual property, like journalists do, you have a responsibility not to tear it down, but to raise it up. The depiction of rap and of hip-hop culture in the media is one that needs more of a responsible approach from journalists. We need more 30-year-old journalists. We need more journalists who have children, who have families and wives or husbands, those kinds of journalists. And then you'll get a different depiction of hip-hop and rap music.

  KRS-One

  Children, Husband, Rap

  Source: www.avclub.com

• To me, that's the biggest problem with hip-hop today is the fact that everyone believes that all of hip-hop is rap music, and that, when you say "hip-hop," it's synonymous with rap. That when you say "hip-hop," you should be thinking about breakdancing, graffiti art, or MCing - which is the proper name for rap - DJing, beat-boxing, language, fashion, knowledge, trade. You should be thinking about a culture when you say, "hip-hop.".

  KRS-One

  Fashion, Art, Believe

  Source: www.avclub.com

• I think music should be free. I think all communication should be free. I think people should respect artists, and there should be a certain respect for artists who give their music away for free. If your music winds up on Napster and you approve of it, then the person downloading your music should at least go to your concert, should at least purchase your songs.

  KRS-One

  Song, Communication, Artist

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Just black executives have a bias against older artists. We don't respect our elders. That's not because of white people. That's because of black leadership. We just have that problem, and it's something that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to conquer.

  KRS-One

  Artist, People, Black

  Source: www.avclub.com

• The single most important contribution that I can offer, the strengthening of people's spirit and soul, the strengthening of families, the unity of a husband and a wife. To me, that's most important. Without that, we have nothing. If a son doesn't respect a father, if a child doesn't respect a parent, then we're lost.

  KRS-One

  Children, Husband, Father

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• I make intelligence cool. I make spirituality cool. If we can make one's devotion to God cool, then I think I did a great thing. I can rest in peace.

  KRS-One

  Rest In Peace, Thinking, Devotion To God

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• Deepak Chopra, look at him. He's probably the most successful self-help guru in the world. I don't think he's struggling for any marketing or exposure. You've just got to know where your audience is.

  KRS-One

  Struggle, Successful, Thinking

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• If I were to critique myself - step out of KRS objectively and look at him - I would say that KRS has introduced the concept of being hip-hop, not just doing it. The concept of rap as something we do, while hip-hop is something we live. The concept of living a culture. Don't just look at hip-hop as rap music, see it as a culture.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Hip Hop, Culture

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• As a conscious rap artist, you should not want to be in a gangster market. You should be trying to establish your own market, create a place where you can be yourself and make some money and feed your family.

  KRS-One

  Being Yourself, Rap, Artist

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• The whole world is conscious. It's just that we become conscious at times, and you become conscious when you lose a parent, or just a loved one, period - a wife, a brother, you know. You wake up and say, "Man, it's real. I don't need this pimp gangster stuff anymore, I need something with a little more substance." And there is marketing for that.

  KRS-One

  Brother, Real, Men

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• You can't expect to be on MTV and critique George Bush. You can't expect to be on BET or the cover of 'The Source' advocating Jesus Christ or Buddha or Hindu Krishna or Moses. As a conscious rap artist, you have to play in the arena that you're supposed to be in. What is that arena? That arena is the college market. The conscious rap artist woos the college market, even though the college market is the wildest, most sexed-out, drug-driven market in the country, possibly the world.

  KRS-One

  Country, Jesus, Rap

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• If you're a conscious rap artist and you're worried about Billboard charts, you're gonna have a problem.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Artist, Problem

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• If you're true to the upliftment of people and the unity of people, raising the self-worth of people, then you live within your means. But the problem is that we're looking at the grass on the other side, saying, "That's greener. I want to be in the thug market, but I want to be a conscious rap artist." It doesn't work like that.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Mean, Thug

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• I've enjoyed much success. The IRS is always at my door, constantly.

  KRS-One

  Doors, Irs, Enjoyed

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• It's not that you don't make any money doing conscious rap music. You make a lot of money doing this, but if you're greedy and you're not satisfied with $500,000 a year, and you want $2 million a year, then you will suffer as a conscious rap artist.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Artist, Years

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• Hip-hoppers are not interpreting what hip-hop is, and when we do interpret it, we interpret it as something immature, unorganized, and outlaw.

  KRS-One

  Hip Hop, Immature, Hips

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• It's just hypocrisy on hip-hop's part to cry racial profiling when your race is on TV acting like fools.

  KRS-One

  Race, Hypocrisy, Hip Hop

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• I think that all journalists, specifically print journalists, have a responsibility to educate the public. When you handle a culture's intellectual property, like journalists do, you have a responsibility not to tear it down, but to raise it up. The depiction of rap and of hip-hop culture in the media, I think, is one that needs more of a responsible approach from journalists.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Responsibility, Thinking

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• When I say hip-hoppers, I mean black, white, Asian, Latino, Chicano, everybody. Everybody. Hip-hop has united all races. Hip-hop has formed a platform for all people, religions, and occupations to meet on something. We all have a platform to meet on now, due to hip-hop. That, to me, is beyond music. That is just a brilliant, brilliant thing.

  KRS-One

  Mean, White, Race

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• I think that hip-hop should be spelled with a capital "H," and as one word. It's the name of our black people culture, and it's the name of our identity and consciousness. I think hip-hop is not a product, but a culture. I think rap is a product, but when hip-hop becomes a product, that's slavery, because you're talking about people's souls. To me, that's the biggest problem.

  KRS-One

  Rap, Thinking, Talking

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• We [black people] don't respect our elders. Besides artists, we don't respect Frederick Douglass. We don't respect Martin Luther King. You look at every Martin Luther King Boulevard out here, and it's a crack block. That's not because of white people. That's because of black leadership. We just have that problem, and it's something that I am going to spend the rest of my life trying to conquer.

  KRS-One

  Kings, Block, Artist

  Source: www.avclub.com

• Black people are just constantly immature in their thinking, undisciplined, and we suffer as a people. This is not about race in the sense that black people got to get something better than whites or Latinos or Asians. This is just basically that we keep complaining about what we don't have and what we can't do, and then, when we get in positions to do stuff, we fight amongst ourselves like savages.

  KRS-One

  Fighting, Thinking, Race

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.

• There's a Universe Instrument, where we apply Hip-Hop to astronomy, and we flush out the chemistry of Hip-Hop. We also flushed out the astronomy, to see where Hip-Hop is read in the stars.

  KRS-One

  Stars, Hip Hop, Hips

  Source: www.ihiphop.com

• The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.

  KRS-One

  People, Black, Important

  Interview with Nathan Rabin, www.avclub.com. April 25, 2001.