A biography for KRS-Onehasn’t been written yet.
“I came from the heart of the ghetto - there ain't no suburbia in me.”
“Rap is something you live; hip hop is something you do.”
“The single most important lesson I learned is that black people are the cause of black people's demise.”
“The idea of New Zealanders sounding like Americans is not it. You got to rhyme in your language, your accent.”
“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.”
“I'm not a fan of public school at all; I think it's one of the greatest catastrophes of American history.”
“I don't need my fans to buy my music. My music is free, basically.”
“I don't even want my music on mainstream radio. They don't deserve it. They destroy careers.”
“I was born in Hip Hop. That's all I ever needed.”
“Illiteracy causes violence. If you don't have enough words in your vocabulary, you can't even seek your way out of a situation.”
“Hip-hop is not about crime. Hip-hop is not about being a gangster.”
“There is no forgiveness, justice, or healing on any level when hate is involved.”
“Every generation brings its own presentation of what hip-hop is to them.”
“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'm hoping to make the kind of difference in my lifetime that allows me to be remembered positively.”
“People say I contradict myself because I come gangsta and teach at the same time. I don't want to be too much on either side, but I do want to speak to all audiences.”
“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.”
“I mistakably paid respect and condolences to the wrong Beastie Boy member King Ad-Rock when it should have been MCA. In light of this, I am redoing the song 'Hip Hop Speaks From Heaven' and I am pulling the original version off of my digital release. Historical accuracy is extremely important to me, so I accept all responsibility for this error.”
“I am a poet, and I speak poetically.”
“It seems like racism in the United States is overflowing.”