Youssou N'Dour Quotes

I listen to a lot of reggae.

Reggae is vile.

Music was always heavily involved with my spirit. My entire family is Jamaican. It's nothing but reggae music and those kinds of vibes.

The music that I represent and helped to create and establish was born in Jamaica.

My parents are from Jamaica, and I love reggae music.

I like Peter Tosh, Bob Marley of course. All of Capleton, Sizzla, Frisco Kid, Buju Banton.

Reggae music isn't Jewish, but a lot of the ideas are.

I grew up in a house full of music. Everything from reggae and afro-beat to Zook and pop.

I do have very solid reggae roots based on the fact that I'm Jamaican, and so that is a part of myself; even if I never do all reggae, it has to come out in some way because that's who I am.

Jamaican reggae is the style of music I always reach for when ranting to friends about how you could listen to one style of music exclusively for the rest of your life - and it would all be great and varied and worth hearing.

I was raised on pop music.

Growing up, we had folk records.

The energy Major Lazer presents on stage is guided by sound system sessions of years ago.

My mom used to always play hip-hop around the crib, but moreso than that, she played reggae, and I grew up on reggae music more than I grew up on hip-hop.

I've grown up on gospel and blues music, and now it's a huge part of who I am.

I grew up on soul music. I was a dancing little creep.

My love, growing up on the Prairies, was country music.

I don't know how you can go your whole life and not listen once to Bob Marley - what's the point?

In Jamaica, the music is recorded for the sound system, not the iPod. It's about experiencing music together, with other people.

I think I get a lot of ideas from when I was a kid, listening to Casey Kasem's 'American Top 40.'

Reggae is definitely a natural influence. Even living in Southern California, near the water, you get that reggae feel.

One of the first places where I started to respond to song lyrics was in reggae music. A lot of what I was responding to were references to the Old Testament. It was not that I had to adapt the lyrics to the sound. Reggae and the Old Testament are bound up together. There wasn't anything that I had to do.

I never listened to country music growing up.

Suckle was the first West Indian DJ and he had this fantastic source of music.

Reggae was always a passion of mine. I used to say in interviews that I would love to do a reggae album. But it consumed my life being a hip-hop artist and being Heavy D, which I'm happy and proud of.