Quotes from Mos Def

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

I've always loved rhyming. I love language.

I got my first exposure to Islam when I was 13.

I like to read the 'Financial Times' when I'm traveling. 'Economist.' 'Ad Busters.'

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.

I know what it feels like to have the door slammed firmly in my face, so I'm cool with that.

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.

But even creeps deserve to live someplace halfway decent.

You're not gonna get through life without being worshipful or devoted to something. You're either devoted to your job, or to your desires. So the best way to spend your life is to try to be devoted to prayer, to Allah.

Twitter freaks me out. You have followers? It feels so obsessive and proprietary.

I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. I don't rap like nobody, I don't try to sound like nobody.

All the things that are worth doing, take time.

It wouldn't be fair to cast aspersions on an entire cultural movement based on the actions of a few. To quote my grandfather, 'One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch.'

Fear not of men because men must die. Mind over matter and soul before flesh.

They say that when a man faces his destiny, the destiny ends and he becomes the man that he really is.

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

I want to be necessary and do good works. I ain't here to waste nobody's time, because I don't want you to waste mine.

And remember don't high post when you're far from home, and high posting when you're all alone.

I'm inspired by playwrights, novelists, poets: The value of language has been a lifelong passion of mine. I enjoy it. I'm good at it.

I'm trying to get low. People's personalities can get in the way of their own work.

Mos Def is a name that I built and cultivated over the years it's a name that the streets taught me a figure of speech that was given to me by the culture and by my environment and I feel I've done quite a bit with that name and it's time to expand and move on.

That's what I've been trying to strive for - to draw a clear picture, to open up a new dimension.

Hip-hop is the last true folk art.

At its heart, music is all higher mathematics.