When it comes to multi-threats from the world of hip-hop, it doesn’t get much better or more interesting than the work of the 49-year-old Brooklyn, New York City-born rapper, singer, actor, and producer Mos Def, known today as Yasiin Bey.
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The artist, who rose with Talib Kweli as part of the rap duo Black Star, is versatile. He also embodies a sense of authenticity in thought and lyric. So, with all that style and success, one might wonder what Mos has to say about the world at large, about music, his craft, and more. Here are the 20 best Mos Def quotes.
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1. “I’m inspired by playwrights, novelists, poets: The value of language has been a lifelong passion of mine. I enjoy it. I’m good at it.”
2. “You’re not gonna get through life without being worshipful or devoted to something. You’re either devoted to your job, or to your desires. So the best way to spend your life is to try to be devoted to prayer.”
3. “If ‘Life in Marvelous Times’ can’t get on the radio, then I don’t need to be on the radio.”
4. “African art is functional, it serves a purpose. It’s not dormant. It’s not a means to collect the largest cheering section. It should be healing, a source of joy. Spreading positive vibrations.”
5. “All the things that are worth doing take time.”
6. “My presence speaks volumes before I say a word.”
7. “I’m a hustler. And my hustle is trying to figure out the best ways to do what I like without having to do much else.”
8. “I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong. There’s not a lot of regard for the property by the residents.”
9. “It’s possible and available to any artist to be himself or herself on their own terms, to be accepted and embraced by Black people. You don’t have to be a thug to get love from Black people.”
10. “Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years. It’s a name that the streets taught me, a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment.”
11. “In the early ’90s, when I really started to find my voice, I was reading a lot of books, and I was moved by the writers, like Chinua Achebe, and I wanted to be able to write rhymes that were as potent as what I was reading.”
12. “I don’t wanna get into that space where a lot of guys now, their solo album is like eight or 10 songs with other people, you don’t get an idea of who this guy is. I just wasn’t interested in that.”
13. “Good art provides people with a vocabulary about things they can’t articulate.”
14. “Bob Marley performed the ‘One Love Peace’ concert in Jamaica with the two different warring political sides. There’s always been that in Black music and culture in general. It’s no surprise because black music is such a reflection of what’s going on in Black life. It’s not unusual for hip-hop.”
15. “I’m not shy about heated debate or passionate discourse, but when people get crazy or rude, that’s a buzz kill. There’s got to be a better code of conduct, some basic etiquette.”
16. “The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words—that’s magical. That’s what I’ve been trying to strive for—to draw a clear picture, to open up a new dimension.”
17. “That idea of peace and love toward humanity shouldn’t be nationalistic or denominational. It should be a chief concern for all mankind.”
18. “You want to know how to rhyme, then learn how to add. It’s mathematics.”
19. “You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions.”
20. “I’m an independent thinker. And I’m not the poster child for any movement. I’m trying to support whatever’s right no matter where it is.”
(Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images)
