Power always becomes consolidated back into the hands of very few people... whether they be an economic aristocracy, a royalty, a monarchy which is the most concentrated form of oligarchy where it depends on one King who is ordained supposedly by God to rule.
Only a f-kin imbecile would think they un-correctable, cause you're susceptible to becoming more than a spectacle.
Because I know that the early Greeks and Romans and the early Europeans at that age did not see racism as we see it now - because racism was created to justify slavery to build the capital for capitalism - and back in the day they respected talent over race. We had an African Pope in the late 5th century, we had an African Emperor of Rome, and early church Fathers were black.
How do you think policing is in places like China, or North Korea? Whatever we experience, in terms of our policing, I also wanted to make known that the rest of the world suffers ten times more because of that power dynamic; because of the fact that there is no Posse Comitatus in other places which is what prevents in our country, or what is supposed to prevent the military from taking on a policing role of its own people.
when God said "let there be light" I turned it the f-k off.
I would say that everyone that you see who is successful in the mainstream, at the top of Billboard, who has a Top 40 hit... at some point, unless they're a complete fabrication of the industry with no identity of their own and a carbon copy clone of someone else, they in themselves started out being underground.
The kingdoms of Africa and Mesopotamia, machine gunning your body with depleted uranium, this is the age of microchips and titanium, the dark side of the moon, and contact with aliens.
If we can sell out a venue that's just as big as this in Omaha, if we can sell out DePaul in Chicago tomorrow, which looks like it's going to happen for 1100 or 1200 people, then obviously everyone will know that we can affect between 700 to 1000 people at a time in damn near every city in America, then I think that's a good start. It also tells people, and gives them an example, how independent hip-hop is able to do this without gigantic corporate support.
I can't imagine Revolution being quiet, unassuming, or bashful
Plastic metaphors and carbon copy similes that aren't going to do anything for anybody and it doesn't showcase creativity; it showcases the fact that the soul of the music has been compromised to control the industry.
I don't think the war is going to end, but the war is just going to change. So we talk about change all the time, well that's what's going to change. You know, we tried having an idiot try and justify the war and give us these rationales and now we're going to have a very articulate and capable black man say it.
The average ordinary person, in the worst slums of America, someone who might even hate the law and disagree with the government, they would do something about that [abandoned child]. But in Afghanistan, people hardly have the means to take care of themselves, let alone a random child on the street.
I met some brothers out from Canada recently who are real cool people. They make Spanish-language music called Cold Blue and I met then at a Lat-Rap conference and they seem like real good peoples from Central America... and that's what it is. It's just based on mutual respect. So when I meet people like that I'm like, "if y'all going to be real with me, I'm going to be real with y'all" and that's all it takes.
Art has to be, you know, trade itself, conform to the old strict guidelines set forth by how it was going to act in the future.
It's not like America's view of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle is going to change. There are some things that are going to change and some things that are not going to change.
I have a strong army I keep with me and we don't go out there looking for problems. A lot of people have this perception... but I don't have a superiority complex about me because I'm from New York or because I'm Peruvian/Black. I think some people get caught up in that stuff.
People are educated into the fact that as a people we stand a better chance of knowing how to work the law if we know the history of the law and the history of our people's relationship with it.
A lot of individuals I've met that I've done a song or two with. But to be honest I'm not incredibly familiar with the scene. I mean, I'm more familiar with people coming from other countries like Latin-American MCs and African rappers... that type of stuff I'm really starting to get a hold on.
My first Hip Hop concert was at the Apollo at the age of 12. Southpaw's father was interviewing Queen Latifah and Treach as well as many others. The place was so packed no one could move but I got to be backstage with the video equipment and so I saw the show from a great place.
I've had some confrontations after I got out of prison and I'm proud of the fact that I dealt with them differently.
Since the police department is becoming more and more militarized we're stuck in a position where we're reverting to that sort of behaviour that other places still suffer from because they're kept in that post-colonial state of development indefinitely so we can reap the benefits of taking whatever natural resources they have.
People who have a conservative viewpoint both religiously and politically and they fear that the world is going to be thrown into perpetual communism.
We're rhyming; we're carrying the banner representing hardcore hip-hop to the death.
Your fans can't just pop in whenever they want. I'm not gonna allow someone to just drop over my house whenever they want like, "Hey what's up? I bought your album so what's for dinner?"
I think that some people from other regions expect us to be like that so I think they overcompensate for that sometimes and they're victims to their own insecurity.
