only through new words might new worlds be called into order

We cannot continually barricade ourselves under some falsified idea of race, because our idea of blackness and race is simply reactionary. Africans didnt walk around Africa being black and proud, they walked around proud.

It was always important to me to be that kid who could rock the party as well as rock the English professor's mind.

she kissed as if she, alone, could forge the signature of the sun

If you're just addressing your own emotions and challenging yourself to find some sort of harmonious sense of being in life and questioning authority and questioning what's given and questioning what's expected of you, you're already on the cusp of finding something in yourself, and maybe waking something in somebody else.

What I'm aiming to do within hip-hop is to point out that the music itself is powerful; it reaches so many people.

Jay Z and President Bush have a lot in common, that same brash confidence