Raheem DeVaughn Quotes

I sing about social issues, not the boy-girl stuff.

No matter what road I take, I can never get too far away from the conscious lyric and the socially conscious content.

A lot of political music to me can be rather pedantic and corny, and when it's done right - like Bruce Springsteen or Jackson Browne or great satire from Randy Newman, there's nothing better.

I want to use my music to deliver a political message and sometimes to denounce, but I don't want to be a politician.

I don't spend my hours worrying how to slip a social message into my act.

There have been many socially conscious concept albums. I wanted to make a 'social consciousness' concept album disguised as a country record.

I can't exactly say why there's not much protest music to speak off. And I know there are acts out there still putting a message in their music.

I've never written a political song. Songs can't save the world. I've gone through all that.

I think it's important, if you are an artist, to use your music to stand up for what you believe in.

When I say 'hip-hop is dead,' basically, America is dead. There is no political voice. Music is dead.

We're not a political band, we're a socially-minded band.

A lot of other bands have tried to go out there and say we've got views on this and views on that. But some of it I've found opportunist. Duran Duran has always been honest about everything. We've always laid everything out.

Well, a lot of people within government and big business are nervous of Hip Hop and Hip Hop artists, because they speak their minds. They talk about what they see and what they feel and what they know. They reflect what's around them.

I think comics should test people, I think it's our job to go too far. That way we know as a society what too far is. Where else are you going to hear it?

My poems are political in the deeper sense of the word. Political means to live in your time, to be a man of your time.

There's a social piece to what's going on in the Sugarland world, but we've never been a band that's political, and I maintain that.

I wouldn't say even that I'm a broadly political person. But on occasion, I have felt that I have no choice but to paint something with a strong moral stance.

Because of my song 'Sam Stone,' a lot of people thought I was interested in writing protest songs. Writing protest songs always struck me as patting yourself on the back.

I pour my blood, sweat, and tears into a movie. What I always look for is a message and a social consciousness: a relevance to what's happening in our world.

It's an artist's choice to speak up about social issues, but I think it's really important, and my favorite artists have spoken out.

There's a lot of anger in 'Queen of Denmark,' and that's me getting political.

I feel it's my social responsibility to shine a light on areas that don't get seen. My personal feeling is that it's an artist's responsibility to be engaged with the culture. And when the culture is going through turmoil, I think an artist can't ignore that. I don't feel that every artist has to be politically engaged, but I can't imagine that you can be an active participant of this culture and not in some way reflect that in the work you are creating.

You can be Michael Moore and make 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' but that's hitting people over the head, and a lot of Americans don't like to be hit over the head. I want to make films that make people walk out and say, 'Wow, I really question if this is all right.'

In Japan, there has always been a small number of musicians who have been outspoken on social issues, but they tend to be dismissed as radical.

If people are coming to 'Hamilton' to leave their politics behind, you came to the wrong show.