I'm hoping to make the kind of difference in my lifetime that allows me to be remembered positively.
I don't need my fans to buy my music. My music is free, basically.
The only solution to the education system is to find yourself.
No one ever really talks about the punk-rock involvement in hip-hop, which influenced Afrika Bambaata.
DMX - everything this brother spits is hot. Everything. This is the heat right here. When I stand next to MCs, this is who I wanna stand next to.
I don't even want my music on mainstream radio. They don't deserve it. They destroy careers.
Every generation brings its own presentation of what hip-hop is to them.
There was no hip-hop before Afrika Bambaataa.
You have to be educated to vote.
I honestly now know that I'm the physical embodiment of hip-hop on earth. That's my only purpose here on earth is to keep the culture together long enough for it to remain everything that we thought it could be when I was coming up.
For KRS-One, I have a specific sound - sparse drums and bass. I try to steer away from elaborate productions.
Bring the arts back, and treat it with respect.
Ask any rapper or singer what artist they are an expert on. What artist are they looking to emulate, and really, what artist is the one person they are an expert on? You see, if you want any kind of longevity, if you want any kind of legacy, you need to know what ancestral line you are from.
Every ghetto kid that walks the earth can see something in KRS-One that reminds him of himself.
In the future, hip-hop is going to be called American folklore.
If the radio ever played my music, I would sue them. And they know it, which is why they don't play my music.
High respect goes out to our mothers, our single mothers. This is why today the real community uplifts femininity and holds womanhood above, not equal to, masculinity.
Every ten years, we get a new old school. In 1987, we thought 1977 was the best era in hip-hop. Here we are in 2007, and we're discussing '97/'98, when 50 Cent just started.
The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.
I do have a desire to bring a spiritual tone to the hip-hop community, which may force me to open a facility that teaches spiritual principles through the language of hip-hop culture.
