Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli

11 quotes

Few American rappers have been quoted as widely as Talib Kweli (b. 1975), whose insights reach well beyond their original context. Talib Kweli's observations on War are as sharp as their thoughts on Politics, revealing genuine breadth of mind. Our collection holds 12 quotes from Talib Kweli, each offering a different angle on War, Politics, Music, Knowledge, and Teacher. To get a sense of their style, try: "War is not civilized."

“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 Kweli

Teacher

All Quotes by Talib Kweli

“War is not civilized.”

— Talib Kweli

War

“I not only wanted to showcase lyrical skills but also continue to drop knowledge on the hiphop community. I'm looking to elevate through my music, and through my music I educate.”

— Talib Kweli

Knowledge

“So I just had to step up how I was doing it and the moment that I stepped up and the moment I focused all my energy on that is when things started to happen. So there's a direct relationship between my inspiration and my output.”

— Talib Kweli

Relationship

“Skip the religion and politics, head straight to the compassion. Everything else is a distraction.”

— Talib Kweli

Politics

“Ain't nobody making music to not be heard and the easiest way to be heard is to be on the radio, but you should never compromise who you are, your values or your morals.”

— Talib Kweli

Music

“You know, I've learned a lot from every person I've collaborated with, from Madlib to Jean Grae and Hi-Tek, to Mos to DJ Quik, to even somebody like Jermaine Dupri. I've taken something important away from every experience.”

— Talib Kweli

Experience

“The beautiful thing about hip-hop is it's like an audio collage. You can take any form of music and do it in a hip-hop way and it'll be a hip-hop song. That's the only music you can do that with.”

— Talib Kweli

Music

“I think its man's nature to go to war and fight.”

— Talib Kweli

War

“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 Kweli

Teacher

“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 Kweli

Knowledge

“We're in an illusion about what our role is in world politics and foreign affairs, and our policies are killing and destroying and doing a lot of things that we are not aware of.”

— Talib Kweli

Politics