If Islam's Sole Interest Is The Welfare

In The Early '90s, When I Really Started To Find My Voice, I Was Reading A Lot Of Books, And I Was Moved By The Writers, Like Chinua Achebe, And I Wanted To Be Able To Write Rhymes That Were As Potent As What I Was Reading.

I Don't Rap Like Nobody, I Don't Try To Sound Like Nobody.

I Believe The Projects Were A Social Experiment; We Were Laboratory Rats Stacked On Top Of Each Other, And People Just Knew, Inherently, That There Was Something Wrong. There's Not A Lot Of Regard For The Property By The Residents.

I Began To Fear That Mos Def Was Being Treated As A Product, Not A Person, So I've Been Going By Yasiin Since '99. At First It Was Just For Friends And Family, But Now I'm Declaring It Openly.

I Dreamt That I Could Paint You With Words, But There Were No Colors Bright Enough, Black Or White Enough, Blue Or Green Enough...they Didn't Mean Enough