Talib Kweli

Talib: I think hip-hop is going to change with the people. I'm very cautious about getting caught up in that mind state, and somehow suggesting that Bush's presidency is good for hip-hop and will create a reaction.

Talib My fondest memories were watching the Beastie Boys get prepped to come on stage. They had a lot of antics and they play a lot of basketball… then they were giving out cameras to the crowd, and performing from the bleachers… The most important thing I learnt was that you control your crowd, not the other way around. They would chastise the crowd for being too rowdy if it looked like people were gonna get hurt. That was cool.

Talib: I think once you're in the public eye, whether you're a boss, a teacher or whatever you do, that you're automatically in the position of role model. You have people looking up to you, so whether you choose to accept it or not is a different question.

Talib: God gave us music so we pray with our words.

Talib: I think we need to focus on working harder on other things that create a reaction and response other than waiting for the worst to happen. I think that's a dangerous mind state to be in because if we continue to think like that things will just keep getting worse and worse.

Talib: People can be inspired the way I've been inspired by music.

Talib on releasing albums in the "underground" level: It's a struggle, but it's a beautiful struggle.

Talib on releasing albums in the "underground" level: It's a struggle, but it's a beautiful struggle.

Talib: I guess I've learned that you have to travel. Traveling is a necessity in order to grow as a person. You have to see how other people are living around the world. So you can gain a real perspective.- when asked how was traveling around the globe on him.

Talib: You make knowledge relevant to life and you make it important for children to learn things that will really relate to things going on in their lives, and not abstract.

Talib: I think that the music is what attracts and draws to everything but it's not what's actually being sold. I don't make money off of selling music. I make money off of showing up at places and it's more the image than anything. If I didn't create the proper image I wouldn't have anything to sell. But I think that the music, when I say people don't do interviews about the music, I'd like to do interviews about specific songs, the motivation behind songs, the instruments, the musicians playing on the songs things like that.

Talib: You can read Shakespeare and that's cool for culture and everything, but if you can't explain accurately to a child why Old English will help them in life, then you might as well be teaching something else that relates to what's going on in their real life.

Talib on his albums: I was trying to be as honest with it as I can about my musical ideas and use the resources and experiences that I've attained to make the best possible ***t that your ears could possibly hear.

Talib on the Beastie Boys destroying rap: I think that's just some bulls**t. The Beastie Boys transcend the world of hip hop. They transcend the world of music. They are their own thing. When they were just in the world of hip hop, they were on their own thing. They came in down-by-law. What they've been able to develop is something I would like to develop: a fan base that goes with them wherever they go. Their new album is a straight hip hop album. It's more of a hip hop album than most of the hip hop albums that's out now. They just do what they to do and hopefully everybody can get to that point.

Talib on his album Beautiful struggle: This album is called 'Beautiful Struggle.' That's really what it's dealing with. It's dealing with people's struggle and trying to find the beauty in it.

Talib: Give me the fortune, keep the fame.