A biography for Boots Rileyhasn’t been written yet.
“Every progressive movement in U.S. history has been portrayed negatively by the media at the time it happened.”
“The truth is, every movie is a message movie. It's just that most movies have messages that are in lock step with the status quo.”
“I listen to everything from The Cure and The Clash to Prince and George Clinton.”
“The United States is going to keep on with its imperialist ways.”
“The crux of our power isn't only in our voice. It is in our economic function in society.”
“I think most people would love for us to be a socialist society.”
“When we were doing shows in the mid-'90s, the audiences were 95% black. What's happened now is the gentrification of hip-hop. A lot of cities passed ordinances that made it hard for black audiences to gather in large groups. Clubs are more open to hip-hop now 'cause it's the same crowd that goes to rock shows.”
“There's the part of me that's the organizer, part of me that's the artist, part of me that's the person who, even with those two things, wants to figure out what my place in the world is. How to engage with it and whether my life has any meaning.”
“People want something that's relevant to their lives. They want something that means something to them, and they want something where it seems like people have thought about what they're saying.”
“I've always been about, how do I get my ideas out to the most people?”
“People want things that address their everyday reality, and that goes for stuff that isn't political - with singer-songwriter music, people want things that touch them.”
“It's nice to be recognized for what you do, but that doesn't satisfy what I wanted out of this music, which is for people to hear it and get involved in movements and campaigns.”
“You can't get much done by yourself. Speaking as someone who made a movie - and it took hundreds of people to make it happen - I can say that.”
“You make art, you make it from what you know, and that's the best way to make art. You get lost in the details and make something that feels like it's yours.”
“The tech world is not a new phenomenon; it's a new era.”
“I think voting is the lowest form of political action that you can do. A lot of times, it keeps people from doing stronger things.”
“In Chile, they had penas, where the community would come together to sing and plan how they were going to overthrow the government. There's a real hopefulness in that community style of organizing.”
“There are a lot of people out there doing cool work. I went to South Africa with Talib Kweli and the Roots for a couple of weeks. And even a lot of the groups that aren't called 'political' or 'revolutionary' have a lot more to say than what you hear on the singles.”
“If I wasn't rapping about politics, then I might have been just another person trying to sell albums, and I might have sounded like everyone else out there.”
“I have a problem with superheroes in general because, politically, superheroes are cops. Superheroes work with the government to uphold the law. And who do the laws work for?”