All we want in this life is peace, prosperity and a little paper... Q-Tip More Quotes by Q-Tip More Quotes From Q-Tip I'll have you weak in the knees that you could hardly speak, Q-Tip swings uncles rap I do try to speak of positive things. I still try to, like, present two sides of the story, and I do try to relate to life in a 360 degree and not be one-dimensional. But by all means, manage expectations. Q-Tip two-sides expectations mean I like music with soul and passion and the good of humanity. As long as it has those things, I'm all the way in. Q-Tip passion soul long With the black male as a teenager, where you're coming from the ghettos and that kind of stuff, you've got to assert yourself, be macho, not let anybody walk over you, so that's where all this unnecessary bullshit comes from - from egos. That's why there are a lot of fights. That's how come the whole thing with rap has been violent. It's because of the male ego. Q-Tip teenager ghetto rap Rap is not pop, if you call it that then stop... Q-Tip pops rap hip-hop You never know: rain, sleet, hail, snow, Q-Tip rap blow rain Ayo, shout out to Mobb Deep, the Extra P Q-Tip rap hip-hop sleep In 1999, I just came out of putting out the song 'Vivrant Thing' and 'Breathe and Stop' off the 'Amplified' album. Clive Davis signed me to Arista. Q-Tip breathe albums song I grew up on the rough side of the tracks. If you looked like you were soft, you would be fodder for the wolves. I came up in my neighbourhood like, 'I'm just gonna be me,' and all the thugs just said, 'It's OK, he's special.' They knew I had the talent with the rhymes, so they kept me around. Q-Tip thug track special Predating the Internet and predating videos, you had an active imagination. You would hear sounds and then get mental pictures of what these sounds felt like to you. It engaged you and made you more invested in it. It made you want to get tickets to the show, buy the album, put the poster on the wall. Now it's sensory overload. Q-Tip wall imagination sound So pay attention, it's not hard to decipher, Q-Tip rap pay attention It's not just a struggle for blacks to be accepted by whites, but the other way around as well. A lot of people don't see that. Q-Tip struggle people way To be honest I'm not going to sell dreams like everybody else does and say, "Sure, it can be changed." I don't want to seem like a pessimist, but nothing's getting better. Q-Tip get-better dream doe I'm a cinephile. I love movies, I love film at every level. I'm a student of it. It informs me as does all art in my music, because there's stories, there's acts, there's moods, there's dynamics, there's moodiness, emotion. All of those things that play into a film. I think that could equally be said about music. It definitely informs me. Beats is stories. Q-Tip play art thinking When I watch films now, theres more of a musicality to the way the film are written. Q-Tip film watches way You can tell how good a filmmaker is if you can turn the sound down but you can still feel the story. Q-Tip filmmaker stories sound One step at a time, a man walked on the moon. Q-Tip rap moon men Funky like your grandpa's drawers, don't test me Q-Tip grandpa rap tests I feel like Barack Obama, kind of in a political sense, embodies that same kind of spirit as a Q-Tip or a Santogold or a Common. I feel like there is a synergy going on here in this country and abroad. I feel like the doors are open, and it's time to push them wide open. Q-Tip feel political time country In theory, people would pick progression every time over being idle. But if you look at us as a culture, as a people, you would say that if you get up at five o'clock in the morning, eat your breakfast, go to work, make money, pay your bills, you're progressing, when you're still doing what's comfortable. Q-Tip money work time morning