Quotes

[on his song 'Thrift Shop'] Commercial hip-hop tends to be about spending money or buying things. And I think that's gotten fairly boring. 'Thrift Shop' is the polar opposite. It's about saving money, finding bargains, bragging about the deals you're coming up with.

Gay people and women are still the most oppressed people in hip-hop culture. You can only watch that for so long. I have gay family. I have gay friends. That's the beautiful thing about writing songs. You get to take on issues that you're passionate about.

Bullying is a national epidemic.

'Vote Love' means vote equality. It means vote change. It means vote what's right for humanity.

You can only watch injustice go on for so long until you're compelled to say something. To speak out against it.

I find that when I put my spiritual life first, the rest of my life is easy. When I put my career first, that's when I have problems.

Music is therapy. Music moves people. It connects people in ways that no other medium can. It pulls heart strings. It acts as medicine.

I just want to give the people 100% of myself as an artist.

My partner has to have good sized bones.

You have major labels that are willing to take unconventional approaches because the old model is crumbling in front of us.

'The more expensive the better' is kind of the American way, and if you spent $600 for a sweatshirt, then that makes it better.

When I write, I don't have any expectation of what kind of song it will become or who it might reach.

I'm as honest as I can be.

I shop at thrift shops probably five times a week.

I want to make music that I like; not something that I have to make because I think it's going to sell.

I think music should be experienced by people all ages.

I definitely use 'smiling while rapping' as a tool in the booth. I want to have fun while recording.

The fame and the money and all that stuff that comes along with it is all great, but that's not the sole purpose of why I make music.

I'm a very conceptual writer.

I think what's wrong with the fashion world, particularly men's fashion, is the lack of creativity behind it.

Reading a piece of poetry with no beat in front of 20 people is way more challenging than rocking for 10,000 people.

I'm not more or less conscious than any other rapper out there.

I'm someone that examines culture and tries to break down why things are the way that they are whether its hip-hop music, sex, race, or consumerism. I try to examine it and scrutinize it to the point where I can write a song.

I think that there will always be artists out there who think they need to sign a major label deal in order to be successful. And that machine is what is going to work for them - there's tons of examples of pop stars who need that machine.

I put myself in the place of the listener when editing my writing. The last thing that I want to do is be preached at and told who to be or what to think when listening to an artist. However, I do want to be inspired. There's a fine line.

Sampling is kind of prehistoric, given the technology and the textures you can create.

I think that civil rights issues take a lot of time to develop.

I played baseball up until my freshman year of high school. That was my main sport. I played third base.

I don't write a great song every day. I don't write a great song every couple weeks. It comes in such random times.

Consciousness rap - a term that I don't think exactly exists but gets thrown around a lot - is not exactly popular.

You need to get outside of your comfort zone to write songs that are interesting, songs that are compelling, songs that are different from what other people are writing.

Thrift shopping is really just an extension of me being that same kid and going into a place that's completely unconventional that has really endless possibilities in terms of outfits that you can put together and really just expressing yourself.

I think people are enticed by indie rap and every time you have a group going against the grain, they're gonna be like, 'Wow, you did it yourself in 2012, that's impressive - how did you do it? What're you doing that's different? And how can I be a part of it?'

It's easy to view politicians as corrupt and voting essentially an act of picking the lesser of two evils. I understand that perspective and feel it's valid.