Top 175 Quotes & Sayings by KRS-One
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician KRS-One.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
I am a poet, and I speak poetically.
I find it fascinating how hip hop as a culture mirrors every mythology from the beginning of mythology. The concept of the single mother and child - the Madonna concept. Hip-hoppers were raised in that.
My theory is that hip-hop is the most advanced version of civilisation on earth, and we are here to usher the rest of humanity into the Age of Aquarius.
Bring the arts back, and treat it with respect.
There's no distinction. A teacher is a preacher. The teachers in public schools are preachers, and the preachers in church are teachers.
When we say, 'Look, Donald Trump was a friend to hip hop back in the day; so was Bill Clinton,' It doesn't mean that because he was a friend to hip hop back in the day, that the same Bill Clinton wasn't at the lead of this mass incarceration of African Americans today.
I mistakably paid respect and condolences to the wrong Beastie Boy member King Ad-Rock when it should have been MCA. In light of this, I am redoing the song 'Hip Hop Speaks From Heaven' and I am pulling the original version off of my digital release. Historical accuracy is extremely important to me, so I accept all responsibility for this error.
When rap music needed to have a teacher, I became it.
There has always been a conscious effort to destroy any upliftment of the black race, whether that be physically, mentally, psychologically, morally, culturally, or economically.
Every ghetto kid that walks the earth can see something in KRS-One that reminds him of himself.
Graffiti art brings you back to your human skills - your spirit and what your being is really about.
No one ever really talks about the punk-rock involvement in hip-hop, which influenced Afrika Bambaata.
Hip-hop is a worldwide culture. We have permeated every urban environment.
Many of us were raised without a father, and the subject of deadbeat dads hits home in a lot of areas. Most of all, doing a song about being a father to your daughter flies straight in the face of the argument that says hip-hop is misogynistic.
When you seek to do something, if you don't know the whole game plan, you're usually going to work against yourself.
I think that Napster is the greatest invention since sliced bread. Napster, to me, is liberation and freedom for artists.
The ones that sell the most aren't the ones that are remembered.
You can never be too old for hip-hop.
Maybe I'm the prophet of hip hop for real. Maybe I do come with some kind of divine principle behind me, because I know that every battle I've ever had I've always won.
High respect goes out to our mothers, our single mothers. This is why today the real community uplifts femininity and holds womanhood above, not equal to, masculinity.
Hip Hop is an idea. It is the pursuit of one's authentic being through the arts. It is not a physical thing; it is an attitude - even an aptitude.
I don't see enough peace talk in society.
Where I go, rap goes. Rap is like my dog; it's like my little pet. And where I go, I lead my little pet with me.
This is the problem with the United States: there's no leadership. A leader would say, 'Police brutality is an oxymoron. There are no brutal police. The minute you become brutal you're no longer police.' So, what, we're not dealing with police. We're dealing with a federally authorized gang.
Hip-hop is not about crime. Hip-hop is not about being a gangster.
Self-management and self-control are the keys to advanced knowledge, and both are difficult to learn without a sense of your own cultural identity.
I think music should be free. I think all communication should be free. I think people should respect artists, and there should be a certain respect for artists who give their music away for free.
Violence on the community stops when the soul matures.
Hate is indeed self-destructive, and this is what real Hip Hop must avoid at all cost.
When I wake up in the morning, do I think I'm a role model? Yes. I'm not trying to have a pristine image, because a real role model shows you to the good and ugly.
I am a youth minister, ordained by the Riverside Church in upper New York. But to declare myself a minister and begin to preach from the pulpit, from the Bible, to a congregation and to build a church, so to speak - I don't have a desire for that.
You must have an opinion about yourself, some kind of meaning to yourself, a purpose, if you are really going to learn anything or develop into that which you desire to be.
What is American education? What should our students be taught? Is hip-hop something that is worthwhile and useful for students to learn? Of course, if you're learning it from KRS-One, I would say yes.
I honestly now know that I'm the physical embodiment of hip-hop on earth. That's my only purpose here on earth is to keep the culture together long enough for it to remain everything that we thought it could be when I was coming up.
People say I contradict myself because I come gangsta and teach at the same time. I don't want to be too much on either side, but I do want to speak to all audiences.
There is no forgiveness, justice, or healing on any level when hate is involved.
In the future, hip-hop is going to be called American folklore.
Even with so many artists using auto-tune, there's still a growing group of artists rising up and going in the opposite direction, making music that's real and fresh. And those cats are getting back to the basics without auto-tune. And a lot of those cats are packing out venues without getting played on the radio!
It's always baffled me why BET looks the way it does. This is Black Entertainment Television. Why are we up there, then, looking like idiots? It's because black people are marketing black people like that.
Hip hop is a human skill, and the practice of real hip hop should remind us of our humanity.
If you don't know hip-hop, at least a little bit of it, you can't even call yourself an American.
For me, I see myself as a role model because, everything I do, there is a person somewhere who needs to hear me spread a message of non-violent conflict resolution.
When my time is up in hip-hop, it's going to remain what Afrika Bambaataa thought it was supposed to be. It's going to remain what Kool Herc thought it was supposed to be; what Wu-Tang Clan sees it as; what Outkast sees it as; what Snoop Dogg sees it as. People are trying to forget that brand of hip-hop.
I'm not a fan of public school at all; I think it's one of the greatest catastrophes of American history.
Rap is something you live; hip hop is something you do.
Illiteracy causes violence. If you don't have enough words in your vocabulary, you can't even seek your way out of a situation.
Religion and God are totally separate. Religion is created by government. God is God.
The Temple of HipHop has declared HipHop its own religion. We believe HipHop is divine. HipHop proves the existence of God.
You have to be educated to vote.
Educate yourself, because this society is geared to have us hate each other. The longer we hate each other, the more we can't come together as humanity and look at the knuckleheads screwing it up for everybody.
It seems like racism in the United States is overflowing.
Every ten years, we get a new old school. In 1987, we thought 1977 was the best era in hip-hop. Here we are in 2007, and we're discussing '97/'98, when 50 Cent just started.
I'm hoping to make the kind of difference in my lifetime that allows me to be remembered positively.
When you're not attached to anything, nothing can harm you. When people become attached, they can be harmed. I know this, so I don't attach myself to anything, really.
When you do an album, you don't get to test an album live.
The truth is nobody was a Muslim until Public Enemy came out. Then, everybody was Muslim this and Muslim that. It's a bandwagon thing. Islam is a way of life... it's a religion. It's not just something you put on a record.
Hate reveals itself for what it really is - evil! It cannot see clearly, so it exposes itself at every turn, and those that truly love can see it.
I have to put a business model together because certain businesses are approaching me as a legend, as if I'm on my way out. Same goes for the way I get presented on the VH1 Hip Hop Honors and BET. I get lifetime achievement awards because of who I am and what I've done, but they want to put me in a place, as if I'm on my way out.
Only love is consistent because only love is unconditional.
The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.
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