The tech world is not a new phenomenon; it's a new era.
There's a very thin line between rock and funk. Funk is like a dirtier blues, and so is rock. They're close cousins.
If we created a society based on love, it would be a society without exploitation.
My training was with some old British communists who had organized unions in the '60s and '70s. And their philosophy was, if you can't drink a pint with a man, how are you gonna get him to go on strike and risk his life?
A record is a commodity, but so is a hamburger. Just because I work at McDonald's doesn't mean I reap the benefits of that commodity. That's the reality with most artists in the record industry: They're getting paid a subsistence wage so they can keep producing a commodity for the record label.
I think voting is the lowest form of political action that you can do. A lot of times, it keeps people from doing stronger things.
The folks that are suggesting Occupy move to electoral politics are ignoring history, ignoring what actually creates change. People get involved in electoral politics because they think there is no movement that can create change.
For me, the association with rock is one of force and anger and aggression. And definitely, in the past, I've made songs that attack like that. But what I usually try to appeal to is peoples' everyday feelings, the things that they're going through as they deal with the system on a one-to-one level.
I chose to do art in the way I always do it, which is with all the crazy contradictions of life in there.
Any collective action is made up of individuals who one day decided not to sit and watch anymore.
I always have thought that part of being involved with life is the same thing as just wanting to kick it with your friends, and being involved with life on a deeper level is wanting to change the situation that you're in.
I used to be mad, at first, that I couldn't sound like Ice Cube. And I think that was probably one of the best things for me.
The United States is going to keep on with its imperialist ways.
The Occupy Wall Street movement, in general, by putting this idea out there that the one percent is leeching off the 99 percent, is making a new discussion, making people figure out how to withhold their labor and come and put their issues on the table with the ruling class all over the country and all over the world.
When people listen to Jay-Z, they're working all day or trying to work and pay their bills, and what they hear is someone who's free. Who doesn't have to worry about the electricity. But all we're taught is that those who are rich deserve to be rich because they worked harder than the rest of us, or they're smarter.
It's nice to be recognized for what you do, but that doesn't satisfy what I wanted out of this music, which is for people to hear it and get involved in movements and campaigns.
I just look at music as a retreat from organizing. It's like a tug-of-war with me. Music can be effective, but it's not any good if there isn't a grass-roots movement going on to support it.
You make art, you make it from what you know, and that's the best way to make art. You get lost in the details and make something that feels like it's yours.
In Chile, they had penas, where the community would come together to sing and plan how they were going to overthrow the government. There's a real hopefulness in that community style of organizing.
People want something that's relevant to their lives. They want something that means something to them, and they want something where it seems like people have thought about what they're saying.
