Nas Quotes

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.

Hip hop music is important precisely because it sheds light on contemporary politics, history, and race. At its best, hip hop gives voice to marginal black youth we are not used to hearing from on such topics.

I don't know that there is a, quote, 'hip-hop lifestyle.' I think the music responds to complex social issues and injustices; I think it also raises complex social questions.

True music must repeat the thought and inspirations of the people and the time.

In my opinion, Lenny Bruce was more of an influence on Zappa's satirical lyric's than anyone that I know of.

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.

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.

A lot that was happening in 2005, 2006, good and bad, the beats reflected it. It was a lot of money around. People was making music to throw money to.

I think it's a mistake where rap music is these days. It doesn't seem to be able to look out of the ghetto and that's ultimately unfortunate, because it defines our limitations.

Punk was more based on social change than on music, so it didn't bother me too much. It wasn't really a musical threat.

Hip Hop emerged fearlessly and unappoligeticly reflecting our society.

I think Tupac was more someone who was trying to inform us about what was going on, and he did it through entertainment.

Hip Hop is an extension of our very being, and so the study of Hip Hop is the study of self-expression leading to the study of one's true self.

I think artists throughout the history of time have always been controversial and have been a voice to speak to public culture in a way that a politician can't because they'll lose their constituency.

I've always been known for making socially conscious music in the midst of the love songs and the bedroom songs.

All we ever wanted was for Tupac to have the opportunity to tell his story.

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.

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

When I'm in the studio with other rappers, we talk about social issues.

Gangsta rap often reaches higher than its ugliest, lowest common denominator, misogyny, violence, materialism and sexual transgression are not its exclusive domain. At its best, this music draws attention to complex dimensions of ghetto life ignored by most Americans. Indeed, gangsta rap's in-your-face style may do more to force America to confront crucial social problems than a million sermons or political speeches.

One thing that N.W.A did, as Larry Flynt did before them, was to expand the boundaries of our reliance upon the good sense of the people to determine what's right and what isn't, what's obscene and what isn't, and what's immoral and what isn't.

PnB is like a movement, a whole movement is going on.

Politics and music should only mix to a point. Me, I think my job as a musician is to make people try to forget about all that.

I come from Eastside Buffalo and prison cells. That's the beauty about hip-hop. It just brings everybody together.

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