Hip Hop can be a very powerful weapon to help expand young people's political and social consciousness. But just as with any weapon, if you don't know how to use it, if you don't know where to point it, or what you're using it for, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot or killing your sisters or brothers.

Freedom! you askin me about freedom. I'll be honest with you. I know a whole more about what freedom isn't than about what it is, 'cause I've never been free. I can only share my vision with you of the future, about what freedom is.

That was one of the big problems in the [Black Panther] Party. Criticism and self-criticism were not encouraged, and the little that was given often wasn’t taken seriously. Constructive criticism and self-criticism are extremely important for any revolutionary organization. Without them, people tend to drown in their mistakes, not learn from them.

Imperialism is the underlying motor of racism. The underlying reason that racism keeps on being promoted in all of its various forms.

And if I know anything at all, it's that a wall is just a wall and nothing more at all. It can be broken down.

People are tried and convicted in the newspapers and on television before they ever see a courtroom.

All you have to do is ask yourselves, who controls the government? And who are the victims of that control?