The Chronic Represented Everything That I Hated About Hip-hop As A Fan, But Then Later Represented Everything That I Stood For As A Musician And Engineer.

-Questlove

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The Chronic Represented Everything

Questlove

The Chronic Represented Everything That I Hated About Hip-hop As A Fan, But Then Later Represented Everything That I Stood For As A Musician And Engineer.

Topic

Hip Hop

Hips

Musician

More From Questlove

Just Because The Laws Were Changed Doesn't Mean That The Attitudes Have Changed.

Attitude

Mean

Law

All We Sell Is The Greatest Feeling On Earth

Feelings

Earth

Sells

We Have To Get Back To "we." It's Important To Get Back To "we" Not Just "i."

Important

Get Back

There's No Such Thing As Success On An Isolated Level.

Levels

Isolated

Resistance Here Doesn't Mean Revolution. It Doesn't Mean Storming The Barricades. Resistance Means Using Art For The Things That It Does Best, Which Is To Create Human Portraits And Communicate Ideas And Forge A Climate Where People Of Different Races Or Classes Are Known To You Because They Make Themselves Known. In The Simplest Terms, Art Humanizes. It Opens The Circuit Of Empathy. And Once That Process Happens, It's That Much Harder To Think Of People As Part Of A Policy Or A Statistic. Art Reverses The Alienation That Can Creep Into Society.

Art

Mean

Thinking

I Don't Bask In The Awards I've Won, Read My Bank Statements, I Refuse. To Me, That's How You Start Losing The Hunger.

Awards

Losing

Hunger

What I'm Slowly Realizing Is That I Believe That Most Of Us Felt That We Could Relax A Little Bit After November 2, 2008, Because Of The Progress And The Spirit That It Took To Get Barack Obama In The White House. And What We Didn't Realize, Is That Was Really The Beginning. That Was Really The Beginning Of The Struggle And Not The End Of A Struggle, To Come From Colonial Times Through Slavery, Through The Jim Crowe Laws, Through The Civil Rights Period To The White House As, Like A Point A/point B Journey. Point B Of Course Being The End.

Believe

Struggle

Journey

I Really Appreciate When People Use Their Fame And Their Voice For More Than Just Self-promotion, Starting A Dialogue About A Topic Or An Issue Much Bigger Than Themselves.

Issues

Self

Voice

Meaninglessness Takes Hold Because Meaninglessness Is Addictive.

Meaninglessness

Highlight Reels Are About That One Person. After A Barrage Of Highlight Reels, You Get The Sense That You Can Do It Without A Team. But Music Thrived The Most When Groups Were Involved. People Lose Sight Of That - That Community Makes The World Run.

Running

Team

Sight

And Even Though People Like To Furrow Their Brow Like They Suspect You're Not Being Honest About Yourself, The Truth Is That They Worry That You're Not Serving Their Idea Of You.

Ideas

People

Worry

After 2001, Everyone In The Soulquarians Blew Up, Which Wasn't Expected. We All Got The Success, And Then Everybody Froze.

Expected

My First Gig Was At Radio City Music Hall When I Was 13.

Cities

Radio

Gigs

I Feel Like The Downfall Of Any Person Is The Second An Artist Starts Celebrating Their Work Themselves, That Becomes Problematic.

Artist

Celebrate

Downfall

My Life's Goal Is To Find A Happy Medium For Sampling To Be Not Only Legal But For The Right Parties To Benefit From It. There Have To Be Sampling Laws. The Survival Of Hiphop Is Based On That.

Party

Law

Goal

When You Live Your Life Through Records, The Records Are A Record Of Your Life.

Live Your Life

Records

It Was Absolutely Killing Me That I've Spent The First 25 Years Of My Life Tryin' To Avoid Bullets. That Was Always The Main Concern. Don't Go Out Late. Don't Go To Any Shady Neighborhoods. Don't Hang In Bars Alone. Why? Because You Wanna Avoid Bullets. So Once I Get To 35 Then I Was Like "woo, Okay. Made It." And Now There's A New Warning. Now It's Like Strokes; I Gotta Watch My Health.

Years

Bars

Warning

In Terms Of Being A 'sneakerhead,' There Was One Point Where I Was Obsessively Following Every Sneaker Blog. That's The Beauty Of Twitter: To Get The Heads Up On What's Coming Out.

Sneakers

Coming Out

Term

Time Will Tell. Time Is Always Telling. Time Never Stops Telling.

Time Will Tell

During The 2008 Election, I Made Clear To The Obama Campaign That I Don't Think It's Wise For Me To Force My Personal Political Agenda On Anyone.

Wise

Thinking

Political

I Don't Think Crack Happened By Accident. I'm Part Conspiracy Theorist, Because You Can't Develop Something That Dangerous And Have It Not Be Planned.

Thinking

Cracks

Conspiracy

Half The Time, My Job Is Basically To Talk People Off The Ledge. It's More Psychological Than Just Me Picking Up Some Sticks And Counting, "1, 2, 3, 4."

Jobs

People

Sticks

It's Funny, I Can See The Science In How Music Is Made With Other Artists, But It's Hard For Me To Dissect My Own Thing.

Artist

Made

Music Is

My Parents Were Really Strict About Me Not Watching Cartoons.

Parent

Cartoon

Strict

For Anyone That's Ever Had A Musical Breakthrough In Their Career, It's Always Followed By The Departure Period Right After.

Careers

Musical

Departure

I Think All Of This—the Roots And Djing Included—was Meant To Prepare Me For The Tonight Show.

Thinking

Roots

Tonight

I Believe That The Only People Who Really, Truly Benefit From Any Of The Policies Of Republicans Are The Wealthy. I'm In That 1 Percent Tax Bracket, But I'm Not A Man Of Wealth.

Believe

Men

People

Crack Offered A Lot Of Money To The Inner-city Youth Who Didn't Go To College. Which Enabled Them To Become Businessmen. I Know About Maybe Five People In The Entertainment Industry Who Did Their Peak Work As A Result Of Crack Usage.

College

Cities

People

At 25, My Idea Of Success May Have Been More Vain, Like, "i'll Be Good The Day That There's $20 Million In My Account And I Have This Particular House And The Wife And 2.5 Kids." But At 40 - And I Know It's Kind Of Silly Telling You Guys This - But As Long As My Metacritic Rating Stays Above 80, That's All I Care About.

Silly

Kids

Ideas

Every Time A New Record Started, People Exhaled With Pleasure, Or Their Bodies Moved Automatically. I Really Started Getting High Off Of The Euphoric Exclamations. Every Record I Put On Was Like A Baptism.

People

Baptism

Records

I Hear A Lot Of Cries Of Socialism And Certainly Real Disguises Of "why Should I Share My Money With These People?" We Have To Get Back To "we." It's Important To Get Back To "we" Not Just "i."

Real

People

Important

I've Come To The Conclusion That The Average Person Can Do About Four Things A Day, Like Four Real Things A Day.

Real

Average

Four

I Love Traveling The States No Matter What. I Love Traveling Abroad, Going To Japan And Australia. I Love It. I Never Get Tired Of It.

Tired

I Hate Videos. I'm Meticulous On Everything From Cover Art, Fonts, Productions, Mixing. But When It Comes To Videos, I Just Feel So Defeated.

Art

Hate

Fonts

Working With The Artist Elite Can Be Like Banging Your Head Against The Wall.

Wall

Artist

Banging Your Head

The President Is Just The Coach Of A Football Team. You Need The Right Support, The Right Stadium, The Right Players, The Right Staff. An Excellent Coach Is Not Going To Win Games.

Football

Team

Winning

I Feel Like The Downfall Of Any Person Is The Second An Artist Starts Celebrating Their Work Themselves, That Becomes Problematic. And You Know, I Don't Sit There, I Don't Bask In The Awards I've Won, You Know, Read My Bank Statements, I Refuse. To Me, That's How You Start Losing The Hunger. So For Me Personally, I Just Don't Celebrate It. I'm Happy, Right Now.

Artist

Awards

Losing

I Want To Be As Healthy As I Can Be So I Can Make It Past 50; Make It Past 60 And Make It Past 70.

Past

Healthy

Want

I Don't Have Friends, And It's Hard For Me To Make New Friends. Right Now, The People That Are In My Life Are The People That I Work With.

People

New Friends

Right Now

When You First Start Off, You See What Other People Have And Quietly Say, "i Want That."

People

Want

Firsts

I Cannot Keep A Girlfriend Longer Than Seven Months. I Have 12 Jobs. I Don't Have Time For My Personal Life. I'm Fully Aware That This Is The Sacrifice.

Girlfriend

Jobs

Sacrifice

Jay-z Is A Dude That Can Give You A Hundred 'simpsons' Quotes, Like, 'what You Know About The Monorail?'

Giving

Hundred

Knows

The Only Mofos In My Circle Are People That I Can Learn From.

Circles

People

I Can

I've Always Been A Lover Of Hoodies. I'm A Guy That Travels A Lot. I'm A Guy That Spends A Lot Of Time On A Cold Air-conditioned Tour Bus. I'm A Guy That Likes To Watch Movies In Peace. I'm A Guy That Likes To Travel In The Airport In Peace.

Airports

Guy

Likes

It's A Funny Word, Persistence. It Means Not Giving Up, But It Also Means Just Passing On Through Time.

Giving Up

Mean

Persistence

I Never Want To Get To That Level Of Poverty Where Taking A Bath Has To Be A Hot-pot Experience.

Hot

Levels

Want

Hip-hop Is So Much About Character And Caricature That People Just See You As A Character. Very Rarely Are You Flesh And Bone To People.

Character

People

Hip Hop

I Was One Of Those Skeptics That Thought That Yoga Was For Kooks. Now I'm On A Very Strict Regimen. You Know, I Work Out. That's Another Thing I've Learned Relaxin', Sleep, Yoga. I Didn't Know That That's As Crucial As Going Hard, As Workin' Hard, As Exercising Hard. I Never Knew. I Thought That, "okay, I Gotta Be At The Gym Like Five Hours Everyday Going Balls To The Wall." And What My Yoga Instructor, What My Trainer, What They're Trying To Teach Me Is That, "no, It's Sleep." That's Important. That's Just As Important As Workin' Out.

Wall

Yoga

Sleep

My Theory Is That Nine Times Out Of Ten, If There's A Depression, More A Social Depression Than Anything, It Brings Out The Best Art In Black People. The Best Example Is, Reagan And Bush Gave Us The Best Years Of Hiphop.

Art

Years

People

I Hate Holidays Because It's The Quietest; It's The Most Deafening Sound In My Apartment.

Hate

Holiday

Sound

How Do You Plan A Rebirth? I'm Not Sure You Do. You Just Stand In The Darkness Until You Can't Endure It Any Long, And Then You Move Forward Until You're Standing In The Light.

Moving

Light

Long

I Have A Lot Of Those 'forrest Gump,' I-was-there Moments.

Moments

Forrest Gump

Part Of Me Would Just Like To Relax And Have One Job That Pays Me The Amount I Need To Survive. And Another Part Of Me Wants The Creativity That Comes Out Of Struggle And Frustration And Fear. It's A Never-ending Cycle, Which Must Be How I Want It, On Some Level.

Jobs

Struggle

Creativity

According To My Parents, I Just Started Drumming When I Was Two. I Traveled With Them From Five To Seven On The Road, Playing Percussion. Between 8 And 12, My Dad Sort Of Prepared Me By Teaching Me Every Aspect Of Road Life.

Dad

Teaching

Two

Classical Music Requires An Immense Amount Of Concentration, And I Don't Know If I Would've Been That Committed To That Particular Life.

Classical Music

Concentration

Committed

Hip-hop Is An Instant Gratification, Winners And Losers Circle, And Often Those Who Are Losing Give Up After Three Or Four, Five Years.

Giving Up

Years

Circles

Kurt Cobain Represents A Very Legit, Realistic Outlook. Before That, In My Head, To Be A White Artist Was To Be Privileged.

Artist

White

Cobain

I Prefer To Unwind By Djing. I Learned That From Mike D From The Beastie Boys. After A Show, He Would Dj. Once I Saw That, I Wanted To Do That. And Now Djing Is Like My Lifeline. I Love The Power It Represents.

Boys

Saws

Unwind

I Was Born At A Very Crucial Time. I Consider 1968 To Be The Mason Dixon Line Between Pre- And Post-civil Rights Generation Ideas, Whereas A Lot Of People Born Before '68 They Kind Of Went Into That Moses Mentality. Like, I'm Not Going To Make It, You Know, I Don't Have Any Hope.

Ideas

Rights

People

You Can't Live Off Of Just Greasy Fatty Foods And Stayin' Up Till Six In The Mornin' Just Partyin'. You Gotta Take Care Of Yourself.

Care

Six

Fatty

Funk Never Dies. It Is Eternal. It Just Smells A Little Different From Time To Time.

Smell

Different

Littles

I Think The Music Comes First, Then Comes The Fashion, And Thus, The Lifestyle. I Believe It Starts With Music, And Then The Person Delivering It Delivers The Lifestyle, The Fashion. Madonna Is A Great Example Of That.

Fashion

Believe

Thinking

I Keep Moving Through Time And Time Keeps Moving Through Me. And Through That Process, Life Takes Shape. The Question Is What Shape It Is. I'm Not The First Person To Ask That Question, Or To See How Absurd It Is To Think There's A Real Answer. Maybe Life's A Circle.

Real

Moving

Thinking

I'm Not One Of Those People Who's So Blinded By My Own Work And My Sweat. It's Kind Of Risky Writing A Memoir When You're Really Part Of A Larger Universe.

Writing

Sweat

People

It's Easy For Me To Say, "oh Yeah, That's The Self-saboteur Move That Most Artists Pull Whenever They're Afraid."

Moving

Artist

Self

To Be Hip-hop Is Much More Than Just Rapping In The Production. It Is More In The Attitude.

Attitude

Rap

Hip Hop

I Do Count On A Changing Of Tides. All Too Often, What Could Be A Critics' Darling Today Becomes Tomorrow's Target. I Don't Want To Be Too Blasé About It.

Today

Hip-hop Is Such A Disposable Art Form From A Business Standpoint. It Never Treats Its Artists As Art; It Never Treats Its Product As Art.

Art

Hip Hop

Hips

The Chronic Represented Everything That I Hated About Hip-hop As A Fan, But Then Later Represented Everything That I Stood For As A Musician And Engineer.

Hip Hop

Hips

Musician

I Grew Up In Somewhat Of A War Zone In West Philadelphia In 1985, '86. It Wasn't As Extreme As Someone Coming In The Classroom And Just Unloading On A Class, But I Knew To Take The Scenic Route To Go To The Grocery Store To Avoid Certain Elements.

War

Class

Philadelphia

I'm A 24-hour Tweet Machine, I'm A 24-hour Blogger. When There's No Pressure On Me, I Can Talk And Write And Lecture With The Best Of Them. But Put A Deadline On Me And I Start Getting Writer's Block.

Block

Writing

Machines

Reagan's Neglect Of The Inner City Is Responsible For Hiphop. Hiphop Is Created Thanks To The Conditions That Crack Set: Easy Money But A Lot Of Work, The Violence Involved, The Stories It Produced. Crack Helped Birth Hiphop.

Cities

Cracks

Stories

At The End Of The Day, I Don't Release Any Records That I'm Not Proud To Put My Name On. I Never Got To That Point.

Proud

Switching Off Perfection Switched On The Human Quality

Perfection

Quality

Switching

Music Has The Power To Stop Time. But Music Also Keeps Time.

Stop Time

In The 2000s, I Became An Artist. I Started Preserving And Educating. I Became More Obsessed With Making Ipod Playlists For People.

Artist

Ipods

People

I Don't Believe In Good Music And Bad Music Anymore. I'm Through With That Phase Of My Life. Sometimes I Just Wanna Feel Good, So I Put On A Good Record. But Mostly I'm More Of A Businessman Than A Music Fan, So I'm Listening To Music In Terms Of, Is This Effective Or Not Effective?

Believe

Feel Good

Listening

I Do Secret Stand-up Shows Around New York. I Announce And Tweet This To Nobody - I Get Onstage And I Do A Quick Five Minutes.

New York

Secret

Understanding Quotes: Their Essence and Application

Quotes, or quotations, are powerful tools in communication, encapsulating ideas, emotions, and wisdom in concise expressions. They serve various purposes across different contexts, from academic writing to everyday conversation.

1. Defining Quotes

A quote is a repetition of someone else's statement or thoughts. It can be a direct replication of words spoken or written by another individual, often used to support arguments, provide evidence, or convey profound insights.

2. The Importance of Quotes

2.1. Enhancing Credibility

Incorporating quotes from authoritative sources can bolster the credibility of your work. By referencing experts or primary sources, you demonstrate thorough research and a solid foundation for your arguments.

2.2. Providing Evidence

Quotes serve as concrete evidence to support claims. In academic and professional writing, they validate points made, offering readers a basis to trust the information presented.

2.3. Conveying Emotions and Perspectives

Quotes can encapsulate emotions and perspectives succinctly. They allow writers to express complex feelings or viewpoints through the words of others, often more eloquently than paraphrasing.

3. Types of Quotes

3.1. Direct Quotes

Direct quotes involve copying the exact words from a source, enclosed in quotation marks. They are used when the original wording is significant or particularly well-expressed.

3.2. Indirect Quotes (Paraphrasing)

Indirect quotes restate the original message in your own words. While not enclosed in quotation marks, they still require proper attribution to the original source.

3.3. Block Quotes

Block quotes are lengthy direct quotations, formatted as a separate block of text. They are typically used for quotes exceeding a certain length, varying by citation style. For instance, in APA style, quotes longer than 40 words are formatted as block quotes.

4. Proper Usage of Quotes

4.1. Contextual Relevance

Ensure that the quote you choose is relevant to the topic and adds value to your content. Avoid inserting quotes solely for decorative purposes.

4.2. Integration into Your Writing

Seamlessly integrate quotes into your writing. Introduce them appropriately and follow up with analysis or commentary to connect them to your main points.

4.3. Attribution and Citation

Always attribute quotes to their original authors and provide proper citations according to the required style guide (APA, MLA, Chicago, etc.).

5. Common Mistakes to Avoid

5.1. Overusing Quotes

Relying too heavily on quotes can overshadow your voice. Use them sparingly to support your arguments, not replace them.

5.2. Lack of Analysis

Presenting a quote without analysis or explanation can leave readers questioning its relevance. Always follow up with your interpretation or discussion.

5.3. Misquoting or Taking Out of Context

Ensure that quotes are accurate and not taken out of context, as this can mislead readers and undermine your credibility.

6. Quotes in Different Contexts

6.1. Academic Writing

In academic writing, quotes are used to support arguments, provide evidence, and engage with existing literature. Proper citation is crucial to avoid plagiarism.

6.2. Journalism

Journalists use quotes to provide firsthand accounts, add authenticity, and present multiple perspectives within a story.

6.3. Literature and Creative Writing

In literature, quotes can be used to convey character voices, themes, and stylistic elements. They enrich narratives and provide depth to storytelling.

7. Punctuation and Formatting

Understanding the correct punctuation and formatting of quotes is essential:

Quotation Marks: Always enclose direct quotes within quotation marks.

Punctuation Placement: In American English, periods and commas are placed inside quotation marks, while colons and semicolons are placed outside.

Block Quotes: For longer quotes, format them as block quotes without quotation marks, and indent the entire block.

8. Ethical Considerations

Ethical use of quotes involves accurate representation, proper attribution, and respect for intellectual property. Misuse can lead to plagiarism, which carries serious academic and professional consequences.

9. Tools for Managing Quotes

Utilize tools like citation generators and plagiarism checkers to manage quotes effectively. These tools help ensure proper formatting and originality in your writing.

Conclusion

Quotes are invaluable in enriching content, providing evidence, and conveying complex ideas succinctly. When used appropriately, they enhance the quality and credibility of your writing. Always ensure relevance, proper integration, and ethical usage to maximize their impact.

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