Latest Talib Kweli Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I try to count the blessings rather than the problems.

  Talib Kweli

  Blessing, Trying, Problem

• 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

  Song, Hurt, Writing

• The founder of Crunk Feminists is a Christian. If you claim to be a Christian, but then you attack somebody for saying you should approach a problem with love, you're not being a true Christian.

  Talib Kweli

  Christian, Love You, Feminist

  "Talib Kweli Stands His Ground". Interview With AJ Vicens, www.motherjones.com. August 26, 2013.

• The way I feel about Crunk Feminists. Here you have a bunch of bloggers who are not even quoting any feminists' works who are telling me what I can do better when I've been doing this as my life's work while y'all still in college! What are you talking about? And their criticism was of the idea that we should approach people like Rick Ross and Lil' Wayne with love when they have lyrics that we don't like, as opposed to approaching them with hate. That's their issue: How dare I say I approach Rick Ross with love!

  Talib Kweli

  Hate, College, People

• Crunk Feminist Collective, I think, is a noble endeavor, and any group of young women coming together to uplift women, especially being run by women of color, I have no choice but to support that. But they're dead wrong on me.

  Talib Kweli

  Uplifting, Running, Thinking

• The thing is, allies is people who are friends, people you can rely on in the struggle. You're not always going to agree with your allies. For instance, Stevie Wonder I feel like is my ally when it comes to this Florida situation, but I don't agree with his strategy. That doesn't mean he isn't an ally.

  Talib Kweli

  Struggle, Mean, People

• Now people won't beat you up if you are gay; they might just talk behind your back.

  Talib Kweli

  Gay, People

• I tour whether I have album out or not. I tour more than any other hip-hop artist.

  Talib Kweli

  Artist

• When I was a teenager, the way some of these kids out here be actively gay, it would have been ridiculed in the hood. And now the hood is a bit more accepting. Begrudgingly accepting, but definitely more accepting than 20 years ago when I was a little kid. That doesn't mean that anybody should stop fighting for equality just because people are begrudgingly a little more accepting.

  Talib Kweli

  Teenager, Mean, Kids

  "Talib Kweli Stands His Ground". Interview With AJ Vicens, www.motherjones.com. August 26, 2013.

• 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

  Artist, People, Listening

• 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.

  Talib Kweli

  Support, Community, Moral

• I think the biggest problem in our country is mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex. From the Rockefeller drug laws to stand your ground to stop and frisk, all these are pointing people, especially and disproportionately black and brown people, towards the criminal-justice system. It's depleting whole generations of people.

  Talib Kweli

  Country, Thinking, People

  "Talib Kweli Stands His Ground". Interview With AJ Vicens, www.motherjones.com. August 26, 2013.

• We send young white boys to the Army. We're sending young black boys to the prisons.

  Talib Kweli

  Army, Boys, Black

• What else is stop and frisk? These neighborhoods are unsafe not because there's not enough cops illegally frisking people. They're not safe because of economic conditions. They're not safe because of all types of things in the government that people like Mike Bloomberg and Ray Kelly should be looking to fix instead of randomly searching kids in the hood. 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

  Kids, College, People

  "Talib Kweli Stands His Ground". Interview With AJ Vicens, www.motherjones.com. August 26, 2013.

• Michael Bloomberg is a sensible guy. He's just privileged. He's a goddamn billionaire, and he or his family members have never had to deal with anything as remotely degrading as stop and frisk. So he has no point of reference.

  Talib Kweli

  Guy, Billionaire, Sensible

• 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

  People, Community, Constitution

• Harry Belafonte hit me to the Dream Defenders and I liked what they were about. When I asked them how I could help their movement, they said, "You can help by coming down here; you can tweet."

  Talib Kweli

  Dream, Helping, Tweet

• I gotta be dope first. I gotta be appealing to your senses, and to what you like first. Then the message happens. Then you relate to the message.

  Talib Kweli

  Dope, Messages, Firsts

  Interview with Paul D. Miller, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. April 7, 2013.

• I look at the deejay thing as a tier thing. If I'm not going to compete on that level, I'm just going to do it as a hobby.

  Talib Kweli

  Hobbies, Looks, Levels

  Interview with Paul D. Miller, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. April 7, 2013.

• 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

  Song, Art, Men

  Interview with Paul D. Miller, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

• I just got a new manager. He's like, "So what do you want to do with the deejay thing?" I'm like, "The deejay thing for me is more my hobby." It's great when you can supplement your income, when you have a weekly or something, it's fun. It's really a hobby, because I don't want it to take away from what I do, which is emceeing.

  Talib Kweli

  Fun, Hobbies, Income

• I see that happening with hip hop purists now. Where you have an artist like a Kendrick [Lamar] or a Drake, who are really trying different things emotionally, different things musically, and on a mainstream level. And you have underground hip hop fans dissing it, for the simple fact that it's mainstream - not because what they're doing is whack, or what they're doing is not sincere.

  Talib Kweli

  Artist, Simple, Trying Different Things

• 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

  Art, Fire, Musician

  Interview with Paul D. Miller, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

• Hopefully, we learn to appreciate hip-hop here so that it doesn't go the way of jazz.

  Talib Kweli

  Appreciate, Hip Hop, Way

• 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.

  Talib Kweli

  Artist, Australia, Hip Hop

  Interview with Paul D. Miller, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. April 7, 2013.