Krs 1 Quotes & Sayings

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

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

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

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

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

This album is moments that I haven't done before, like just my voice and drums. What people call a rant - but put it next to just a drumbeat, and it cuts to the level of, like, Run-D.M.C. or KRS-One. — Kanye West

Rap is something you do Hip Hop is something you live — 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

Kings lose crowns but teachers stay intelligent — KRS-One

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

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

There could never really be justice on stolen land. — 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Imagine the first time you are about to rap in a studio and you find yourself in a booth with Redman and KRS! — Angie Martinez

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