Talib Kweli Quotes

I realized there are so many steps from getting a deal to having a hit.

If you're part of a record company, you're a manufactured product. It doesn't mean that you're not talented.

When I get all focused on songwriting, I get into all the marketing and promotion that we do to make it happen. Then the right song comes along and blows it all out of the water. The right song will do it for you every time.

I'm still involved in the business of Cheap Trick, so I keep my eye on that kind of stuff.

The cool thing about G.O.O.D. Music is it's a bunch of great ideas, and I'm one of those ideas.

Being a producer is tough. They have to go through so much - dates, money, and release. It's quite crazy.

I actually did a remix for Katy Perry, and her management didn't respond.

As soon as you start making a record, things start getting lined up: the promotion, possibly even a tour.

You need a platform upon which to release an orchestral record, otherwise it's just going to be an obscurity.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is marketing. You've got a bunch of faceless people in a back room who trademark a name that sounds very official. Well, if you had thought of it first, you would have been the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

People are like, 'Wow you started your own record label,' and treat me like I'm some sort of innovative genius, when I'm not at all. You've got the Internet and music - you put them together, and people hear your music.

I never, ever had it in my mind that I wanted to be in the record industry, because I still contend that the record industry is an insidious affair. It's this terrible collision between art and commerce, and it will always be that way.

I was signed to A&M, I was signed to Lou Adler, who had a company within a company, which was A&M Records, and everything - James Taylor, Rita Coolidge, Carole King - I worked on all of that stuff.

I tested the waters on producing a record, but I'm more of a creative guy. I can't get into minute details.

Artist development is something that I've been passionate about from my days at Uptown and Motown Records.

My original idea was to produce and not make records myself.

The independent route was the best move for me. But I think I've maximized everything I could do independently. I've done everything out the mixtape market. I think getting the big machine behind you is the next stage when you've maximized the independent level.

I have been with the record company and Tommy was there doing records with other people.

When the label came to me to say, 'would you like to do another record,' I said, 'Well I got these sixteen songs sitting here, so let's do it.' And that was pretty much it... I never stopped writing, it's just the way that the business is now; you just try to find a different model.

The record company stay out of my way. Whenever the record is finished, they take it.

I spend a lot of time working in the studio as a producer, not just a singer.

I certainly don't want to be a record label guy.

I produce the records. I don't hand over control to some really expensive producer who then talks to the record company and then tries to bend me to their will - for commercial purposes.

You need to know what makes artists tick. Having been through the process myself as a musician, since I was an early teen, gave me an advantage - understanding them from their point of view, because it's about them, it's not about you - it's their vision and what they're capable of achieving, and you're the conduit.

I've never worried about how a new release will be received. I simply try to do the best I can and leave the rest to the gods. The music industry in those terms is something I loathe and detest. It conjures up images of a gigantic factory spewing out parts of the machine.