You have to be an extremist to believe that you're gonna be the president of the United States and your name is Barack Hussein Obama! And he's using extreme methods, but his application is very smooth. Michelle Obama is extreme, her presence is extreme. And it's an extreme good. Extreme is not negative.
Mos DefTo me, the job of the artist is to provide a useful and intelligent vocabulary for the world to be able to articulate feelings they experience everyday, and otherwise wouldn't have the means to express in a meaningful and useful way.
Mos DefI know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.
Mos DefI get reminded a lot of the time that my life is a little bit different, but I'm just trying to keep it as regular as possible because I like it that way
Mos DefI just don't think it's very dignified to ask people to like you. You can just wind up being somebody's ottoman.
Mos DefIt's difficult to really be an artist nowadays. People are just on another page. You have a society that needs you to say something, but they don't want to give you the environment to be able to be just a functioning, happy, normal person. It's like, the industry is at odds with you, the society is at odds with you. You start to live in this very confined box where it's like, It's "me" and "them."
Mos Def