KRS-One Quotes & Sayings

I am the manifestation of study,
NOT the manifestation of money.
Therefore, I advance through thought,
NOT what's manufactured and bought. — KRS-One

Hip-Hop is being spoken through spirituality ... Meaning that you'll be able to listen to it spiritually for yourself. — KRS-One

Hip is the knowledge and Hop is the movement.. — KRS-One

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

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

Hip is to know, it's a form of intelligence. To be hip is to be update and relevant. Hop is a form of movement, you can't just observe a hop, you gotta hop up and do it. Hip and hop is more than music
Hip is the Knowledge, hop is the Movement. Hip and Hop is Intelligent movement — KRS-One

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

Ignorance is a poison and knowledge will nourish. — KRS-One

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

Hip-hop as a culture itself goes through stages. It grows - it's breathing, living. I've noticed that we usually start off conscious, then we wind up very highly sexual, and then we thug it out. Then things get a little funny again, with comedy and that kind of thing. — KRS-One

I'm not saying I'm number 1, oh sorry I lied.. I'm number 1,2,3,4 and 5 — KRS-One

The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise. — KRS-One

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

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

The courage to be yourself is the essence of hip hop — KRS-One

Rap is something you do Hip Hop is something you live — KRS-One

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

So you think that hip-hop had it's start out in Queensbridge, If you popped that junk up in the Bronx you might not live. — KRS-One

Cops just surrounding me with pistols everywhere.
They put me in the backseat of their car handcuffed,
Pushed out them chests like they're big rough and tough.
A cop come and said 'You'll never sell your guns now.'
I said 'It doesn't matter, you'll sell them anyhow.
You take the guns from me, you sell them for a fee;
Anyway you put it, they'll get in the city!' — KRS-One

Educate yourself make your world view bigger, visualize wealth, and put yourself in the picture — KRS-One

If Hip Hop has the ability to corrupt young minds, it also has the ability to Uplift them. — KRS-One

Real men are real friends, showing their real commitment. — KRS-One

The true word of God is written in our heart. — KRS-One

Don't you think it's time we thought about the future? Whether our children are gonna be winners or losers — KRS-One

I'd rather make one righteous dollar on my level
Than make a million dollars spittin' rhymes for the devil. — KRS-One

If you're a conscious rap artist and you're worried about Billboard charts, you're gonna have a problem. — KRS-One

You sleep with a man, that's your husband. So make sure before you lay down, you love him. — KRS-One

I grew up in them streets, like everyone else
but instead of pushin' drugs, I pushed knowledge of self — KRS-One

You were put here to protect us.
But who protects us from you? — KRS-One

Rappers spit rhymes that are mostly illegal,
MC's spit rhymes to uplift their people. — KRS-One

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

No [other rappers are on my level], none of them. Here, let me put it like this in the sky, there are a million stars, but when the sun appears, you see none of them. I am the sun. — KRS-One

Take a look at the police and how they treat you,
Take a look at these corporations that cheat you.
Democrats and Republicans are all see-through.
Now we votin for the lesser of two evils ...
Man, don't let 'em deceive you.
This is an autocracy, not a democracy,
But to call this a democracy without mock interest
In the laws of society? That's called hypocrisy. — KRS-One

Are you tired of lyrical liars, passing fliers,
Wannabe MC's, but really good triers,
Tripping over mic cords, getting you bored,
A total fraud, this kind of thing I can't afford! — KRS-One

You got to have style, and learn to be original. — KRS-One

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

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

Stop the negativity and control our creativity — KRS-One

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

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

It's not about a salary, it's all about reality. — KRS-One

Teach the student what needs to be taught.
'Cause black and white kids both take shorts
When one doesn't know about the other one's culture,
Ignorance swoops down like a vulture. — KRS-One

Teachers teach and do the world good, Kings just rule and most are never understood — KRS-One

Believers of Jesus be denouncing Satan on every level,
But every Halloween they're dressin' like devils. — KRS-One

I've enjoyed much success. The IRS is always at my door, constantly. — KRS-One

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

There could never really be justice on stolen land. — KRS-One

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

I used to let the olde english 8- suds bubble in the last car of the Franklin Avenue shuttle — KRS-One

You know something, it's best no to have what you need
because then, you start looking for what you need
and make it what you need. — KRS-One

I told Wayne to his face he was the dopest MC out. MC, not rapper. I told him to his face because I believe that, Wayne is nice! Wayne is bananas with his lyrics, with his whole delivery, with his whole thing. Lil Wayne is the man! — KRS-One

I break an emcee off proper
Yo don't check me,
Ask your Moms and Pops,
Yo they respect me,
But here you stand, tryin' to get yours, but gettin' nothin'
You probably can't spell "Boogie Down" or "Productions" — KRS-One

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

Rap is like a set-up ... a lot of games,
A lot of suckers with colorful names.
'I'm so-and-so,' 'I'm this, I'm that.'
But they all just wick-wick-wack. — KRS-One

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

Do you ever think about when you outta here?
Record deal and video, outta here!?
Mercedes Benz and Range Rover, outta here!? — KRS-One

Yo Premier, why these rappers so soft?
They corny ass raps be makin me doze off. — KRS-One

Trust in God, that's where the crown is at. It's not in what you get, it's what happens after that. — KRS-One

You know, you don't see with your eyes
You see with your brain
And the more words your brain has
The more things you can see — KRS-One

I'm not an executive. I can do it, I have the mind for it, but there's a life that you have to lead, and you have to give up your creative freedom. That's what I don't want to give up. — KRS-One

Kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent — KRS-One

I know that I'm freer as a hip-hopper than as an executive. Even as a black man, I enjoy more freedom as a hip-hopper than as a black man. That, s controversial to say, but it's the truth. — KRS-One

Love yourself and your expression, you can't go wrong. — KRS-One

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

If the society that we're talking about is a society that starts wars all over the world, degrades indigenous cultures, is misogynistic in itself, if that's the society we're talking about, then it's not a bad thing if hip-hop did degrade that society. — KRS-One

You are not doing hip hop; you ARE hip hop. — KRS-One

I haven't come to tell you I've got juice
I just produce, create, innovate on a higher level — KRS-One

Rap is still an art, and no-one's from the Old School
Cuz rap is still a brand-new tool — KRS-One

Too many MC's take that word 'emcee' lightly;
They can't Move a Crowd, not even slightly. — KRS-One