Best Talib Kweli Quotes & Sayings

The most important time in history is - NOW - the present,
So count your blessings cause time can't define the essence. — Talib Kweli

Why give you the cure when the disease makes money? — Talib Kweli

Before Eminem, the idea that there would be a white rapper that anybody would really check for was fantastic or amazing or impossible. — Talib Kweli

I think hip-hop is no more misogynistic than America is as a society. I just think hip-hop is a lot more brash, a lot more bold, a lot more loquacious. There are a lot more words that go into a hip-hop song than go into a regular song. — Talib Kweli

I take certain steps to make sure I'm relevant artistically. I always have new music and a reason to be on the road. I'm not just playing 'Get By' over and over. I have 12 albums. — Talib Kweli

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

Just because no one can understand how you speak,
Don't necessarily mean that what you be sayin is deep. — Talib Kweli

Hip-hop is a vehicle. — Talib Kweli

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half. — Talib Kweli

And you know, art as commerce, doesn't really make too much sense, they don't go together. — Talib Kweli

They hope for the Apocalypse like a self-fulfilling prophecy
Tell me when do we stop it?
Do they ask you your religion before you rent an apartment?
Is the answer burning Korans so that we can defend Islamics? — Talib Kweli

I remember looking back on a photo of me ... wearing a suit that was, like, two sizes too big for me. I think a lot of guys don't know what fits. — Talib Kweli

War is not civilized. — Talib Kweli

So I just had to step up how I was doing it and the moment that I stepped up and the moment I focused all my energy on that is when things started to happen. So there's a direct relationship between my inspiration and my output. — Talib Kweli

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

If I focus on being an activist and my job is to be a rapper, I'm not going to be as good of a rapper. I need to focus on hip-hop and focus on making the music, so that when the activists come to me and they need my voice to create a platform, then I've got enough people listening to me. Not because I'm conscious, but because I'm dope. — Talib Kweli

We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of. — Talib Kweli

Artists look at the environment, and the best artists correctly diagnose the problem. I'm not saying artists can't be leaders, but that's not the job of art, to lead. Bob Marley, Nina Simone, Harry Belafonte - there are artists all through history who have become leaders, but that was already in them, nothing to do with their art. — Talib Kweli

Truthfully I wanna rhyme like common senseNext best thing I do a record with common sense — Talib Kweli

There just needs to be a gay rapper. He doesn't have to be flamboyant, just a rapper who identifies as gay - who's better than everybody. Unfortunately hip-hop is so competitive that in order for fringe groups to get in, you gotta be better than whoever's the best. — Talib Kweli

When you shine bright, some won't enjoy the shadow you cast. — Talib Kweli

When Occupy Wall Street happened, I took my money out of Citibank. I already had problems with all the banks - Citibank, Bank of America - but I was kind of just too lazy to take my money out until I saw how Citibank responded to Occupy Wall Street. — Talib Kweli

Please, this is no disrespect to whoever your man is though. This relationship is strictly musical like D'Angelo — Talib Kweli

I don't feel comfortable making empty music. — Talib Kweli

So I think hip-hop is moving and is going to continue to move in the direction of rappers just being honest with themselves, whether you're talking about Common and Mos Def or Nas and 50 cent. — Talib Kweli

I feel like your city - with hip hop in particular, because we're always beating our chest and shouting where we're from - your city is just as influential as your parents. Even the grimy, hardcore gangster rap from New York - KRS-One and Wu Tang, the stuff acknowledges it. — Talib Kweli

When I met you it was magic ...
We polar opposites, but attracted like we was magnets. — Talib Kweli

Fortunately, artists can live off their works, if you're creative at how you do it. If you just depend on the videos and the radio, you're at a loss. — Talib Kweli

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

The way I see it, if people truly love my music, they will support me in some way down the road. — Talib Kweli

God gave us music, so we play with our words. — Talib Kweli

I think hip hop is a dance music that's rebellious by nature. — Talib Kweli

The responsibility of an artist is to be honest with themselves. — Talib Kweli

The problem with our role is Americans live in a world of illusion. — Talib Kweli

My fans like to be romantic. I feel like I'm creating at least at the same level or even a higher level of creativity than I was at twenty-one. I've gotten better as an artist. — Talib Kweli

This goes out to freedom fighters, graffiti writers, innocent lifers, grassroots organizers — Talib Kweli