Artists make art for themselves. Art is an honest expression. Artists who pander to their fans by trying to make music "for" their fans make empty, transparent art. The true fan does not want you to make music for them, they want you to make music for you, because that's the whole reason they fell in love with you in the first place.

Talib Kweli

Categorized in : Art Love You Expression

I ignored your aura but it grabbed me by the hand, like the moon pulled the tide, and the tide pulled the sand.

Talib Kweli

moon spiritual hands

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

Talib Kweli

religion-and-politics distraction compassion

When you shine bright, some won't enjoy the shadow you cast.

Talib Kweli

shine-bright shadow shining

A flower that grow in the ghetto know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows.

Talib Kweli

ghetto rap flower

You gotta get back to your essence,

Talib Kweli

rap essence blessing

Do the math: You never settle for less than the whole if you knew the half.

Talib Kweli

rap hip-hop math

Life without knowledge is death in disguise.

Talib Kweli

disguise rap hip-hop

You can have your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Talib Kweli

opinion facts

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

hip-hop song beautiful

When I was a teenager, the way some of these kids out here be actively gay, it would have been ridiculed in the hood. And now the hood is a bit more accepting. Begrudgingly accepting, but definitely more accepting than 20 years ago when I was a little kid. That doesn't mean that anybody should stop fighting for equality just because people are begrudgingly a little more accepting.

Talib Kweli

teenager mean kids

Just because no one can understand how you speak,

Talib Kweli

rap hip-hop mean

If you ain't using all the talents God provided you with

Talib Kweli

rap hip-hop men

Hip-hop isn't as complex as a woman is.

Talib Kweli

hips hip-hop hops

You gotta eat right, you gotta have healthy habits, you know, and balance out your decadence with a healthy lifestyle during the day.

Talib Kweli

healthy-lifestyle healthy-habits balance

I'm not an artist that has a big, huge radio record that's going to be on BET. I'm not, at this point, gunning for like, "Oh, I'm gonna kill them in the first week." But as people slowly discover the album they realize it's better than a lot of what they've been listening to all year.

Talib Kweli

artist listening people

A true artist does not depend on radio for success. A true fan does not let radio determine what they support

Talib Kweli

music success inspirational

We get high on all types of drugs when, all you really need is Love

Talib Kweli

getting-high drug needs

Nowadays rap artists coming half-hearted,

Talib Kweli

rap hip-hop artist

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

abstract important children

If lyrics sold then truth be told/I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z.

Talib Kweli

truth-be-told truth-is rich