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

I never had any ambitions of being a movie star or anything like that, but you know, this is nice.

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.

You can positively affect and change a social circumstance with art, and it’s vital that a change happens now.

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.

Focused. I'm a hustler. And my hustle is trying to figure out the best ways to do what I like without having to do much else.

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