Slick Rick Quotes

If you see something is going wrong within politics and the world today, then some Hip Hop artist is gonna come along and get straight with it. If they think that there's a lot of racism going on then there's another Hip Hop artist who's gonna come out and speak their mind.

I think that there are artists of different genres whose calling is to use their art to hope to affect and better the human condition - whether it's System of a Down, or Rage Against the Machine, or Public Enemy, or the Clash, Bruce Springsteen, or Pete Seeger. It's a group that I'm proud to be counted among.

Hip-hop is supposed to uplift and create, to educate people on a larger level and to make a change.

It's important for me, politically, to see that theater isn't just about the powerful.

These young people have to know that Dr. King and others made it possible for them to do their Hip Hopping.

All art is propaganda, and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists. I stand in utter shamelessness and say that whatever art I have for writing has been used always for propaganda for gaining the right of black folk to love and enjoy. I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda.

If you ever think about me, and you ain't gonna do no revolutionary act, forget about me. I don't want myself on your mind if you're not going to work for the people.

I think at some point there may be artists who will get fed up, and they deliberately want to use their art as a means to rock the waves a little bit. And instead of doing the status quo, they'll deliberately go out to really make a change. I think Kendrick Lamar is an example of that.

A lot of songs we've written have been political, but they're also personally political.

I just look at music as a retreat from organizing. It's like a tug-of-war with me. Music can be effective, but it's not any good if there isn't a grass-roots movement going on to support it.

If I ever hear "Power to the people" again, I'llà I just found out that John Lennon wrote that song, "All we are saying is give peace a chance." I couldn't believe it. I thought it was terrible; I hated that song. They used to bring out the Pete Seeger wind-up toy to sing it. Tiresome.

I knew Stokely [Carmichael] and them, but when you got to that, you saw that Nina Simone started to take up their burden. She started to preach for them. She was taking on the burden of "I want to tell the people."

The Civil Rights Movement also reaffirmed me as a singer. It taught me that singing was not entertainment, it was something else.

I'm interested in figuring out what freedom songs would sound like in 2016.

I don't mean it egotistically, but I've been given the chance to be in front of people and sing, and I feel that it's part of my job and my duty - especially where I'm from - to speak the language of the people I'm around and speak for them.

If you think about it, hip-hop came out of nothing. It was a response to oppression.

This band isn't mostly about being a political protest band. We want to entertain; we want to give you a good time. At the same time, if you look through the history of Priest, there's always been an intelligent factor.

At the women's march, we held signs that said, 'Today we march, tomorrow we run.' They didn't believe us, but it's coming to pass.

Won't you help to sing these songs of freedom? 'Cause all I ever have… redemption songs; redemption songs.

My music is made for the people who are willing to stand up to change this world themselves.

Music has always pushed ahead social movements and can do much more than just dumb down a populace.

There's still injustice happening in my world. I sing my songs at concerts and I'm so grateful that the people are ready to hear them.

In our country there's never been a successful progressive struggle that did not have a soundtrack, whether it was the civil rights movement, workers' rights movement, women's rights movement. There's got to be songs at the barricades, and those are the kinds of songs that I try to write.

We must make an issue, create an event, and establish a national position for ourselves: and never may expect to be respected as men and women, until we have undertaken some fearless, bold, and adventurous deeds of daring . . .

Our objective is complete freedom, justice and equality by any means necessary.