K'naan Quotes K'naan Art isn't held with the same high regard as it is after success. In any country, in any language, you're a loser if you're making music until you prove otherwise. Art Country High Regard Language Loser Music Otherwise Success
It was not my dream to be an artist. How could it have been? I thought, artist, much like a leader, was something you either were or weren't. Never something you set out to be. K'naan
I know that often times a lot of people who work in music, whether they be labels and so on or even artists, want personal recognition. We want to be recognized for something, for what we did. I'd rather my song be recognized for what it's doing and that's important. It's not so important how many people know me. K'naan
I enjoy mediation. I think the artist's position is often to mend the things we feel are broken. Whether that's between two cultures or two thoughts. We're always trying to reach, trying to expand something. K'naan
From the stage, I can reach a large audience, and you learn from being on stage how much a song reaches, what extent of the crowd a song can reach. I write in a way that can reach most of the audience, but I also wanted to have truly intimate moments as well, many intimate moments, more so than the big moments. K'naan
I think it's a mistake to work on success in career. I've worked on my passions obsessively. How can I say what I want to say more precisely than the last time I said it? Success is such an elusive concept. When you work for it, I think you get it in a way you might regret it. K'naan
The problem is that rap is so often a caricature of its own image. Nobody comes to the table with the seriousness of the effect that it can have; nobody is prepared for that. K'naan
Hip-hop in Africa has been very often a duplication of an American experience, but in a context that's totally alien to it. K'naan
The people of Somalia just do not have a voice. They are to me the most forgotten people in the world. K'naan
My question about my art and my music has always been, 'Am I good, or am I good because?' I'm not the artist who wants to have the 'because' attached. K'naan
Although my mother didn't necessarily approve of teenage girls wearing heels, she made an exception for me when I was 14 because she didn't want me to be self-conscious about my height – or to slouch. L'Wren Scott
In Peru, if you gave somebody a little chance to do something, they took it to the furthest extent. They took nothing for granted. And here in L.A., you kind of get caught up in your own little dilemmas and your own little life. Qorianka Kilcher
I was probably 21 or 22 years old when I realized the prose that I live by, which is, 'You get what you give.' The more good deeds that you could do in your life, the more fulfilling and enriched your life is going to be. I truly believe that. Zac Brown
It's about people rising up in Ferguson and in Egypt and in Occupy Wall Street and in every place where a community has had enough and decides to make change happen. It's not about praising one charismatic leader but celebrating thousands of them… 'Black Messiah' is not one man. It's a feeling that, collectively, we are all that leader. D'Angelo