Quotes from KRS-One

Love yourself and your expression, you can't go wrong.

You sleep with a man, that's your husband. So make sure before you lay down, you love him.

Hip-hop is not about crime. Hip-hop is not about being a gangster.

If you don't know hip-hop, at least a little bit of it, you can't even call yourself an American.

In the future, hip-hop is going to be called American folklore.

When my time is up in hip-hop, it's going to remain what Afrika Bambaataa thought it was supposed to be. It's going to remain what Kool Herc thought it was supposed to be; what Wu-Tang Clan sees it as; what Outkast sees it as; what Snoop Dogg sees it as. People are trying to forget that brand of hip-hop.

I honestly now know that I'm the physical embodiment of hip-hop on earth. That's my only purpose here on earth is to keep the culture together long enough for it to remain everything that we thought it could be when I was coming up.

There was no hip-hop before Afrika Bambaataa.

How can you call yourself a cosmopolitan modern person if you don't know what hip-hop is?

My theory is that hip-hop is the most advanced version of civilisation on earth, and we are here to usher the rest of humanity into the Age of Aquarius.

Many of us were raised without a father, and the subject of deadbeat dads hits home in a lot of areas. Most of all, doing a song about being a father to your daughter flies straight in the face of the argument that says hip-hop is misogynistic.

Hip-hop is a worldwide culture. We have permeated every urban environment.

Rap is no longer a pastime; this is a worldwide profession.

In one sense, I wanted to study philosophy and theology, getting into the history of the Bible. I went through that for, like, two years while I took a desk job at Warners. It was very depressing but exhilarating at the same time.

The Temple of Hip-Hop makes sure that we don't just approach hip-hop just through music or through rap. We approach the totality of hip-hop.

Religion and God are totally separate. Religion is created by government. God is God.

The ones that sell the most aren't the ones that are remembered.

I'm hoping to make the kind of difference in my lifetime that allows me to be remembered positively.

Hate is indeed self-destructive, and this is what real Hip Hop must avoid at all cost.

What is American education? What should our students be taught? Is hip-hop something that is worthwhile and useful for students to learn? Of course, if you're learning it from KRS-One, I would say yes.

Trust in God, that's where the crown is at. It's not in what you get, it's what happens after that.

I'm here to inspire young people to be part of the most magnificent culture on earth: hip-hop.

I flew everywhere for the first 10 years of my career, and I started to not like commercial transport. I just don't feel safe.

Hip hop is a human skill, and the practice of real hip hop should remind us of our humanity.