Mos Def

“The audience is the most important part of the show.”

“I'm not against the police; I'm just against police brutality.”

“Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can't articulate.”

“You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”

“Some of the most revolutionary things that have ever been said have been said by people in situations of utter desperation.”

“People are not going to care about your music unless they care about you.”

“We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty.”

“I'm not a 'conscious' rapper... all rappers are conscious. That's a silly adjective to attach to a rapper.”

“The thing about hip-hop is that it's from the underground, ideas from the underbelly, from people who have mostly been silenced.”

“I believe that hip-hop is an art form. It's a culture.”

“I'm trying to be a person who is frank, and who is not afraid of my own suffering.”

“What is hip-hop? It's the whole culture. It's the style, the look, the music, the dance, the language.”

“My Umi said shine your light on the world. Shine your light for the world to see.”

“Art is a way of recognizing oneself.”

“I'm a citizen of the world. I don't have to be defined by my nationality.”