Q-Tip Quotations

I'm kind of a pop culture stew, you know.

I grew up on the rough side of the tracks. If you looked like you were soft, you would be fodder for the wolves. I came up in my neighbourhood like, 'I'm just gonna be me,' and all the thugs just said, 'It's OK, he's special.' They knew I had the talent with the rhymes, so they kept me around.

In theory, people would pick progression every time over being idle. But if you look at us as a culture, as a people, you would say that if you get up at five o'clock in the morning, eat your breakfast, go to work, make money, pay your bills, you're progressing, when you're still doing what's comfortable.

I definitely move to the beat of my own drummer and man, he's not playing something anyone has heard before. It's pretty cool, though. Pretty cool.

It's called 'I Wanna Thank You,' and I'm encouraging everybody out there to blog, Tweet, Facebook, anything about it. Let's sign a petition. The petition is called 'Busta Rhymes Make 'I Wanna Thank You' Your First Single.'

If there's a 'Cruel Summer' then there's got to be a 'Cruel Winter,' right? That's all I'm saying.

One thing the music industry has taught me is to manage my expectations.

Dealing with those personalities and the people who run this music thing has been most challenging. It's hard to really communicate things to people who run a business yet forget the nature of the business. They only look at the bottom line and the financial return, you know, they forget what it is they're packaging. It's art.

The song, 'Life is Better,' is about hip-hop. It's about my love for hip-hop. And, you know, I go through all the artists from the beginning to the end, you know. And, well, not to the end, but since the beginning to now, you know.

I do try to speak of positive things. I still try to, like, present two sides of the story, and I do try to relate to life in a 360 degree and not be one-dimensional. But by all means, manage expectations.

I think I have great responsibility, and when I do my music, when I try to relate to my audience, I just try to do it in an honest fashion, you know, just try to be as earnest as possible and sometime it may be self-effacing. Sometimes it may be finger-pointing. Sometimes it may be beautiful, and sometime it may be ugly.

I'm in a hallowed league of artists. Whether it's Billie Holiday or Rakim or Jimmy Hendrix or... I don't know, MGMT, we're all blessed to be able to create. It's a lineage that extends a long time. And to be able to be active in it and have made a difference in it, it's humbling. To know I had a place in all of this; that's the rewarding part.

I don't really listen to my work. If I have to DJ and I play something, I hear it. But I don't sit quietly and listen to my work; I'm always off to do the next thing.

I feel like Barack Obama, kind of in a political sense, embodies that same kind of spirit as a Q-Tip or a Santogold or a Common. I feel like there is a synergy going on here in this country and abroad. I feel like the doors are open, and it's time to push them wide open.

I read the Koran and it appealed to me. At the time I was agnostic and it really breathed spiritually back into me. For me it's really a cushion; it's cool, I'm cool with it.

Predating the Internet and predating videos, you had an active imagination. You would hear sounds and then get mental pictures of what these sounds felt like to you. It engaged you and made you more invested in it. It made you want to get tickets to the show, buy the album, put the poster on the wall. Now it's sensory overload.

You know, I hate to sound self-involved, but I feel like I haven't peaked yet.

I shot a movie with Nicole Kidman that I got cut out of - it was crap anyways.

On the radio there's only a certain amount of artists: Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye, T-Pain, Lil Wayne, T.I., Mary J Blige, Alicia Keys. Other artists are achieving things that are really special, they have a hard time getting people's attention. Music has been just a little bit lacklustre.

I sang in church, but growing up in the neighborhood, music was more of an expression of relief or entertainment.

In 1999, I just came out of putting out the song 'Vivrant Thing' and 'Breathe and Stop' off the 'Amplified' album. Clive Davis signed me to Arista.

A lot of people who curate in the business, and curate the art, don't really have good artistic sense. They may know commerce, but they aren't savvy enough to know how to balance commerce and art, you know? They don't know how to satisfy both palates.

For people who love Tribe, I'm the defector. They say, 'You should get back with Ali to do the beats.' But a lot of people don't realize I did all the music in Tribe. In the first three albums, I did all the beats!

I feel like Obama in a way. His idea that hope means not shrinking from a fight; it's the courage to reach for something. My music is that. Those are principles I try to embody.

Shorty, let me tell you about my only vice: It has to do with lots of lovin', and it ain't nuttin' nice.

You can tell how good a filmmaker is if you can turn the sound down but you can still feel the story.

Rap is not pop. If you call it that, then stop.

So concisely, musically we are the herb So sit back and light me. Inhale... My style's kinda fat, reminiscent of a whale.

You never know: rain, sleet, hail, snow, See you gotta accept that's how things go. Prepare for the rainy day, or the sun's glow, But there's clouds movin' in and the clouds gonna blow.

Funky like your grandpa's drawers, don't test me We in like that, you're dead like Presley

When I watch films now, theres more of a musicality to the way the film are written.

The world is kinda cold and the rhythm is my blanket, Wrap yourself up in it, if you love it, then you'll thank it

One step at a time, a man walked on the moon. One record got played, Kool Herc said, 'Boom!'

I like music with soul and passion and the good of humanity. As long as it has those things, I'm all the way in.

I'm a cinephile. I love movies, I love film at every level. I'm a student of it. It informs me as does all art in my music, because there's stories, there's acts, there's moods, there's dynamics, there's moodiness, emotion. All of those things that play into a film. I think that could equally be said about music. It definitely informs me. Beats is stories.

For me with art and all that stuff - I like abstraction. I like contortion. I mean, it's still truth. But it's truth through the center of the individual. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's fallacies or falsehoods. It just happens to be one perception of what's happening.

Genetics and beats? I feel like the drumbeat is a natural thing. Our heartbeat moves at a certain BPM. The drumbeat, being the first instrument, the platform for us, being that we all kind of come from that - it's all beats.

I have a very connected history with Bilal. I heard his demo years ago. I heard all of the magic instantly. He's a master at interpretation of song.

Ayo, shout out to Mobb Deep, the Extra P Busta Rhymes, De La, the J Beez, so don't sleep

How far must you go to gain respect? Um... Well, it's kind of simple: just remain your own. Or you'll be crazy sad and alone.

So pay attention, it's not hard to decipher, And after the horns, you can check out the Phifer

Rock and roll to the beat of the funk fuzz Wipe your feet really good on the rhythm rug If you feel the urge to freak, do the jitterbug Come and spread your arms if you really need a hug.

And even though we both fly Give each other space and not the evil eye

I'll have you weak in the knees that you could hardly speak, Or we could do like Uncle L and swing an ep in my Jeep.

There's divinity within because we come from the divine, A force that's not seen, but you feel it every time: When the wind blows, and the world turns, And the rain drops, and the baby cries, And the bird flies, and the ground quake, And the stars gleam.

We all have our own takes on things. To being yourself. The abstract, the whole thing that I play with, seems to result in seeing through your lenses, and once you express how you see things to others, you start to see there are similarities between all people. It's kind of like, no matter how far you go, you're still where you started, in a way.

Satisfaction, I have the right tactics... And if you need em I got crazy prophylactics.

I am recognizing that the voice inside my head Is urging me to be myself, but never follow someone else Because opinions are like voices, we all have a different kind.

All we want in this life is peace, prosperity and a little paper.

We got to stay awake for all these lizards and snakes; Some of them come as friends, some of them come as Jakes.

We got to mediate our greedy levels, Cause the lust of currency can have us sleepin with the devil.

Back in the days when I was a teenager, Before I had status, and before I had a pager, You could find The Abstract, listening to hip-hop, My pops used to say it reminded him of be-bop. I said, 'Well daddy don't you know that things go in cycles. The way that Bobby Brown is just ampin' like Michael. It's all expected, things are for the lookin', If you got the money, Quest is for the bookin'.

know the feelin, when you feelin like a villain, You be havin good thoughts but the evils be revealin'. And the stresses of life can take you off the right path, Jealousy and envy tends to infiltrate your staff... We gotta hold it down so we can move on past All adversities, so we can get through fast.

The thing that men and women need to do is stick together Progressions can't be made if we're separate forever