Mos Def Quotes

Author Image

Mos Def

Profession : Musician

Birth : December 11, 1973

I have mad brims.

Mos Def

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends. The ability to have somebody read something and see it, or for somebody to paint an entire landscape of visual imagery with just sheets of words - that's magical.

Mos Def

I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture.

Mos Def

I have no confidence issues with the impact or the quality of the music. No one in hip-hop, before this point and to this point, with all due respect, has done this.

Mos Def

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

Mos Def

I'm a passionate person. I'm a lot of things, like most people are. Most people are dynamic. The focus is not on me though, I'm a screen. The aim is to always keep myself in the position where the screen is clear.

Mos Def

I believe the projects were a social experiment; we were laboratory rats stacked on top of each other, and people just knew, inherently, that there was something wrong. There's not a lot of regard for the property by the residents.

Mos Def

But even creeps deserve to live someplace halfway decent.

Mos Def

I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.

Mos Def

I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

Mos Def

I began to fear that Mos Def was being treated as a product, not a person, so I've been going by Yasiin since '99. At first it was just for friends and family, but now I'm declaring it openly.

Mos Def

With guys I revere, like Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, their look is less about style than purpose and the expression of beauty. It wasn't just about being noticed, you know?

Mos Def

I don't have advice for people on how to dress. People should dress based on what they find beautiful. My best advice: Keep your clothes clean.

Mos Def

Record companies are not necessarily interested in you realizing your artistic dream. The bottom line is that they got to sell records.

Mos Def

To me, playing an instrument and singing, all of these different things are just as natural to me as rhyming.

Mos Def

What I take from writers I like is their economy - the ability to use language to very effective ends.

Mos Def

I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.

Mos Def

If Islam's sole interest is the welfare of mankind, then Islam is the strongest advocate of human rights anywhere on Earth.

Mos Def

If 'Life in Marvelous Times' can't get on the radio, then I don't need to be on the radio.

Mos Def

In the early '90s, when I really started to find my voice, I was reading a lot of books, and I was moved by the writers, like Chinua Achebe, and I wanted to be able to write rhymes that were as potent as what I was reading.

Mos Def