This notion that I was somehow special and deserving of a more involved education was wrong.I was smart at taking tests, but I knew how smart some of my friends were; they were just smart in different ways. Kamasi Washington More Quotes by Kamasi Washington More Quotes From Kamasi Washington Jazz is like a telescope, and a lot of other music is like a microscope. Kamasi Washington telescopes microscopes jazz People have been starving for intellectual fodder, but the best way to get people to close their eyes and not say anything is to tell them that they're not smart enough to comprehend. Kamasi Washington smart eye people If you asked people, "Do you like jazz?" they would be like, "not at all." But I think that if you're really putting yourself out there and really communicating, music can put you beyond people's preconceptions, beyond their playlist. Kamasi Washington would-be people thinking I've had experiences where people say, 'I hated jazz before I heard you guys!' I'm like, 'You didn't hate jazz before you heard us, you hated the idea of jazz.' Kamasi Washington hate people ideas I used to play until 4 o'clock in the morning.My dad would go nuts - he'd scream and say the cops are gonna come and break our instruments. Kamasi Washington dad play morning American music comes from the same tree, but sometimes we get to these places in history where we forget where things come from, and they get compartmentalized. Kamasi Washington music tree sometimes history When I first played some Coltrane-type stuff on the 'Pimp a Butterfly' sessions, Kendrick got it immediately. 'I want it to sound like it's on fire,' he'd say. That's the kind of common ground that the best jazz and the best hip-hop have. Kamasi Washington best butterfly fire sound If we all give our power to one person, that's what the world will be. If we all decide to make the world a beautiful place, it'll be a beautiful place. Kamasi Washington beautiful-place power beautiful world This precious thing of empathy and love and understanding is something we have to hold and appreciate and protect. Kamasi Washington empathy appreciate understanding love Hip-hop and jazz have always been intertwined. Even the G-funk thing. You listen to 'The Chronic,' there's flute solos and everything. It's always been there. Kamasi Washington hip-hop everything you always Music is an expression of life, who you are, and what you've been through. Kamasi Washington you music expression life When I was working on 'To Pimp A Butterfly' and 'DAMN.,' I'm really making music for Kendrick. It's a different mindset than when I'm making music for me. I'm trying to get into his head and figure out what he wants because it's his vision. That's what I expect from people when they're playing on my records. Kamasi Washington me vision music people There's a deeper level of healing that needs to happen for the world in general. There's a mass of people who are broken. Kamasi Washington broken healing people world All forms are complex once you get to a really high level, and jazz and hip-hop are so connected. In hip-hop, you sample, while in jazz, you take Broadway tunes and turn them into something different. They're both forms that repurpose other forms of music. Kamasi Washington hip-hop high you music In general, in my life, one of the coolest things that I've been able to do is to go to different places and meet different people and see how they view the world and to learn what their music is and what their language is, and the food they eat and everything. That idea of the beauty of the vastness of the world has just been my life. Kamasi Washington music food beauty life Hip-hop is a collage. It samples from all different styles of music. Kamasi Washington collage hip-hop music different My mum liked gospel and R&B, Chaka Khan, and Whitney Houston. Kamasi Washington whitney-houston liked gospel houston I don't want to live my life to necessarily overcome struggle, but when I am going to hit struggle throughout my life, I face it head on. Kamasi Washington face i-am my-life life When you bring multiple cultures together, there's a degree of push and pull. Kamasi Washington degree push you together Every time you learn a new language, your understanding of language overall grows, so every time I would learn new music, my understanding of music would grow because I was taken to an extreme in a different direction, and that was, in effect, carrying over into what I do. Kamasi Washington grow you music time
