Ali Shaheed Muhammad

“You should be able to be influenced by art no matter where it comes from.”

“Our records are commodities. We're looking to make a sale. The radio stations are looking to get the advertising dollars. The end.”

“But I could not imagine having a child and the child not having a relationship with music that opens up their mind and their imagination and teaches them things.”

“Here in America, our use of time is not harmonious with humanity's better spirit.”

“Kanye West, I love you. You might not have known, but I have said in other interviews that you're my hero.”

“Nothing new is on the earth right now. Technology, the things that we're discovering, it's been sitting here just waiting for someone to brush it off and go, 'Oh, let me read that. Let me see how I can use this information.' And it doesn't matter if it's from a tech perspective or a philosophical perspective.”

“As an artist, sometimes you'd rather not do the interview. You might feel the interviewer isn't educated on you... or what you're about.”

“I keep saying if I ever get a good amount of quiet time that I want to learn to play cello. It's a very warm instrument. The tone of the cello and the movement - I don't know what is; I love it so much.”

“Because I express myself through the music, I want to be responsible in that expression and how it carries on well after I'm here. But that's just me.”

“I grew up around electronic instruments. To me, the turntable is an electronic device. At the same time, I had access to drum machines and keyboards through my uncle; then track recorders into computers. At an early age, I was messing with computers more than most hip-hop musicians.”

“My mom used to be concerned 'cause I would never go outside. And when I'd go outside, I'd have friends, but I just was always in the house listening to music, practicing DJing all the time. Then my uncle got a keyboard, drum machine, so I'd just be in the house at 12, 13, just, like, messing up his presets. And my mom was like, 'My son is strange.'”

“The DJ still has the relationship with the people, I believe. I don't know to call the DJ 'the ambassadors' or what, but we still are connecting the dots, getting the good stuff and passing it on to the people. DJs still have relevance, even with the technology that elevates the DJ beyond being a selector.”

“I think at some point there may be artists who will get fed up, and they deliberately want to use their art as a means to rock the waves a little bit. And instead of doing the status quo, they'll deliberately go out to really make a change. I think Kendrick Lamar is an example of that.”

“That's the beautiful thing about being an artist, is you can take risks and take chances and hopefully be secure enough to just keep going with it if you fall flat on your face.”

“When it comes to music, something I'm passionate about, and knowing the reach and the power and how it transforms, it saves lives. Music does.”

“Corporations always are controlling things, and we have the ability every day to do something about that. Every day.”

“I believe in a 'give us this day our daily bread' sort of thing. And what I draw from that is, I try not to stock my refrigerator for groceries for the week, cause I might not live to see the full week.”

“I've never been good at getting on people's nerves, and from the little quotes I read, it's like, 'You're not doing enough in your life if you're not making someone angry.' And I'm like, 'Man. But my life - I seem to help people get somewhere, so am I not? Should I be more aggressive?' That's the way my inside voice sounds.”

“I'm a believer in the nap. I don't care what it is. 15 minutes. Five hours. If you know someone's going to come back and come to work.”

“Discipline is not consistency, and the reason why I say that is - like, for an example, making prayer five times a day, that establishes routine and consistency. That I can do. And having certain fundamental consistencies in business, can do. But time management, outside of that, that's where that's a challenge.”