Quotes.....

 

Rakim (About.com)

That's addressing the situation, addressing our hood, addressing our youngsters, and
schooling them. A lot of times, "keep it real" is a little slogan. But, the kids look at
it (rappers) as if they are really keeping it real when that's not what these dudes are doing.
At the end of the day, the little kids wind up busting their guns and going to jail,
while the rapper's sitting in his crib watching TV on his big screen doing him.
So, we're setting the wrong example because the little kids look up to us and they take
it to the heart. They hear their favorite rapper talking about "Yo, I'm gonna a killer.
I keep the gun on me," and "Don't disrespect me or I'll stretch you out." The little kid
takes that to heart like, "My man said that, so that's what it is." They set that up
and kids run with it, kids get caught up in it, and the rappers sitting at the crib
watching the news. We need to be a little bit more responsible. We can't say that we're
not role models when we're making records. Rap was a little different than R & B back
in the days. People use to get R & B records and sing along and dance with it and cut
that mother*****r off. Rap records, they cut that on and it becomes them. Rap consumes
people.

Talib Kweli (Sixshot.com)

What happens is that music is put in a box and these A&R's
and these labels have one way and one train of thought when it comes to selling music.
If your music doesn't fit within that box, or within that train of thought they are
challenged as to how to sell it and they are challenged to be creative. and um, you know
and it f**ks em up up a little bit. That's the reason, that's part, that's the big reason
why you don't hear why a lot of artist that make type of music I make don't go mainstream
is because the record labels don't know how to promote it.

 

Nas pitchfork.com
Some people say I'm saying what they wanna say. Some people don't agree.
Some people are outraged. Some people want to see what the album is about.
To me, hip-hop's been dead for years. We all should know that, come on.

 

You start to thinking about creative moments-- bliss. When everything was all good.
You realize that in comparison to the way hip-hop started off, where we should be at
right now is not there. Not to say everybody's wack. Or Nas is wack. But I'm trying to
provoke thought for the next up and coming MCs to do something different.

How are the kids going to be inspired to create something innovative when they're
being influenced by some of the s**t that's happening now, which is about just copying and
turning it into a business? You never get a chance to know about Muddy Waters or the s**t
that really meant something. You don't even care.

KRS-One (interview with Tavis Smiley)

What's really getting bigger and more exciting is hip-hop, the culture that rap music comes
out of. Rap has run its course. It will always be around. It has made its point in music his
tory in American pop culture. But hip-hop, the other parts, break dancing, graffiti art,
deejayin', beat box, and the way we dress, talk--these things are gonna take precedence more in the future as people, you know, begin to learn more about what the culture and the
movement and the consciousness of hip-hop is all about.

 

Well, it's obvious. You know, the truth does not sell. The truth helps you live.
Now, you have to decide. Are you a product, or are you a human being? And most people
prefer to be products.

Well, give it time. We are growing. We're only about 33 years old--34 now if you start us
from 1970 with Kool Hurt in the Bronx. Give us time. Let the years go. Let our audience
grow. Let us have some children, get a mortgage, so on. We'll begin to look at hip-hop a
little more seriously than what we're looking at now.

Hip-hop teaches you to be yourself, be assertive, stand up for yourself,
believe in your ability to overcome anything.

Mos Def

The economic conditions in black communities are such that people don't got no time to be
leisurely involved in some culture. Most of the time, nowadays, when young black people are
involved in hip-hop, it's for economic benefit. That's why the participation level in
hip-hop has been diminished. It's been modified into business -- it's like a new job market.
People still love it -- there are people who are still fans -- but people's situations are
very pressing, sometimes very desperate, and people recognize hip-hop as a way to improve
their (economic) situation.

 

Al Sharpton

In recent years, hip hop has become the most prominent, dominant voice of Black America,
with over $1 billion in annual sales. But the rap of today is not the rap of yesteryear.
The self-esteem of our African-American boys and girls is being siphoned off by lyrics that
bleed to feed insatiable corporate greed; by sisters who move and shake for a money machine
that takes and takes.

The right to freely express ideas is a fundamental value in our nation, but corporate rap
that uses violence to hype record sales is polluting young American minds with the idea that
this is the key to success.

 

 

Russell Simmons

" Hip-hop artists rap about what they see, hear and feel around them, their experience of the
world. Like the artists throughout history, their messages are a mirror of what is right
and wrong with society. "

 

DMC

"Hip-hop is more powerful than politics and religion. It's the only thing that brought black
people, white people, German people, Asian people, African people (together). I traveled
the world - hip-hop changed people's lives,"

"It's not about the videos. It's not about the records. And it's not about the celebrities,
that are just byproducts of the hip-hop culture,

"(The) purpose of the J.A.M. Awards is to show that hip-hop didn't just create rappers,
it created journalists, writers, directors, designers. We're putting the focus back on
the positive creative influence of the culture, not just the music." associated press

Ice Cube

 

"Gangsta rap usually talks about the good, the bad and the ugly of what really happens,
every day, not no made-up stuff," he said. "Even the lyrics that are just more or less
kind of comic book style are coming from a real place. We just kind of tell it like it is
... so we get blamed. It's like blaming the messenger, or blaming the mirror because you're
ugly. You're gonna get nowhere doing that." sohh.com

 

 

Afrika Bambatta nobody smiling

 

 

ìIf youíre playing 50 Cent, we want to hear Common Sense; if you play Missy Elliot, we want
to hear Sonic Force; if you play Sean Paul, we want to hear Bob Marley,î said Bambaataa.

ge. To know to respect the whole culture, especially to you radio stations that claim to be
hip-hop and you're not, because if you was a hip-hop radio station, why do you just play
one aspect of hip-hop and rap, which is gangsta rap? Where's the conscious rap? Where's the
electrofunk? The go-go rap? The Miami bass? The trip-hop? The hip-house? Where's the
international flavor of hip-hop music? Where's the DJ breakbeat records AVClub.com

 

 

Chuck D nobody smiling

ìThis is not a building full of bitter people, bitter old recording artists who are mad that
their records ainít getting played on the radio anymore,î said Chuck D. ìThis is a town
meeting for the survival of people Ö Hip-hop is caught up in a time where oneís worth and
status are contingent upon money rather than a genuine love for the music.î

Chuck D nobody smiling

ìThatís all you hearÖ is a mixture of a thug life and children,î said Chuck D.
ìHow you going to make a club song and your marketing campaign is aimed at a 14-year-old?
Why? A 14-year-old canít get into the goddamn club; and not only is it a club, itís a strip
club. So what the hell does an 11-year-old who rushes home from school to turn on the radio
or television know about strip clubs anyway?î