I would say my flow is Aboriginal. Look at my face, nose, lips, and eyes.

It seems like racism in the United States is overflowing.

The Temple of HipHop has declared HipHop its own religion. We believe HipHop is divine. HipHop proves the existence of God.

For KRS-One, I have a specific sound - sparse drums and bass. I try to steer away from elaborate productions.

Everything God wants you to know is already written in your heart.

I don't need my fans to buy my music. My music is free, basically.

Hip Hop is an idea. It is the pursuit of one's authentic being through the arts. It is not a physical thing; it is an attitude - even an aptitude.

I don't sell millions of records. As a matter of fact, I'm not even interested in selling millions of records. I enjoy MCing. I make a decent amount of money. I can feed my kids. I keep a roof over my head. I don't have to sell a million records to maintain my lifestyle.

When you know the law, you're above the law. When you break the law, you're under the law.

Bring the arts back, and treat it with respect.

Every ten years, we get a new old school. In 1987, we thought 1977 was the best era in hip-hop. Here we are in 2007, and we're discussing '97/'98, when 50 Cent just started.

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

Every generation brings its own presentation of what hip-hop is to them.

Why isn't there any 50-year-old MCs killing it? I'm 46. Am I the only one? I can't wait to get to 50. I'm going to let everybody know it! I'm going to wear a shirt that says 'I'm 50.'

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

When I was about 15 years old, I began to embark on an MC career but also to study philosophy with an emphasis on theology.

Educate yourself, because this society is geared to have us hate each other. The longer we hate each other, the more we can't come together as humanity and look at the knuckleheads screwing it up for everybody.

The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.

Ask any rapper or singer what artist they are an expert on. What artist are they looking to emulate, and really, what artist is the one person they are an expert on? You see, if you want any kind of longevity, if you want any kind of legacy, you need to know what ancestral line you are from.

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

Hip Hop is an extension of our very being, and so the study of Hip Hop is the study of self-expression leading to the study of one's true self.

When you know your self-worth, and you read and you ask questions and you study and you travel, you become free.

I find it fascinating how hip hop as a culture mirrors every mythology from the beginning of mythology. The concept of the single mother and child - the Madonna concept. Hip-hoppers were raised in that.

I kind of backed into rap music. I thought I was going to do comic books or graphic art.

Violence on the community stops when the soul matures.

The idea of New Zealanders sounding like Americans is not it. You got to rhyme in your language, your accent.

I think that Napster is the greatest invention since sliced bread. Napster, to me, is liberation and freedom for artists.

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.

There was no hip-hop before Afrika Bambaataa.

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

Before I came out, there was no such thing as a black conciousness movement. Kids on the street didn't know who Malcom X or Martin Luther King was until rap let them know.

You have to be educated to vote.

No one ever really talks about the punk-rock involvement in hip-hop, which influenced Afrika Bambaata.

I was born in Hip Hop. That's all I ever needed.

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.

I think music should be free. I think all communication should be free. I think people should respect artists, and there should be a certain respect for artists who give their music away for free.

When you do an album, you don't get to test an album live.

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.

When I wake up in the morning, do I think I'm a role model? Yes. I'm not trying to have a pristine image, because a real role model shows you to the good and ugly.

For me, I see myself as a role model because, everything I do, there is a person somewhere who needs to hear me spread a message of non-violent conflict resolution.

I don't see enough peace talk in society.

When rap music needed to have a teacher, I became it.

I look at it like this: you may only sell 20,000 to 100,000 albums. But those albums are going to be heard by future doctors, lawyers, judges, firemen, etc. Those albums are being sold to the right people that move society. They're interested in what you have to say.

Where I go, rap goes. Rap is like my dog; it's like my little pet. And where I go, I lead my little pet with me.

You must have an opinion about yourself, some kind of meaning to yourself, a purpose, if you are really going to learn anything or develop into that which you desire to be.

Young people may be stupid at times, but they respond to the truth when it is present, and for them, KRS-One is the truth!

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

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.

You can never be too old for hip-hop.

I am a poet, and I speak poetically.