Y. Misdaq - Quotes On Art

Quotes On Art

“ Yeah they do have more distractions than I did, but they'll be fine. The right ones will emerge from the noise and help uplift the world, and the rest will do what the rest do. It doesn't change, generation after generation. Maybe you can say there are fewer and fewer people emerging; I don't know ... But either way, it's the same pattern. We just have to hope we are part of the force of good. We might wake up one day and realize we were part of the problem all along. Self-growth might do that to you.” - In Dialogue with Yusuf Misdaq, interview with Courageous Creativity

“The English, of course, celebrate pessimism, and I used to welcome that as a part of being not only English, but an artist too. It’s a very easy feat to accomplish when you remain in the intellectual realm. The ironic thing is that so many poets get away with staying in that safe intellectual realm. No-one is calling them out because poetry has become so stale that no-one expects anything more of it. The primality that I express here is a reclamation of the possibilities of poetry. Possibilities of sounds that emanate from our bodies as well as the more easy thoughts from minds.” - Interview on new poetry series

"Be the action, don't take diction. Be the architect, don't be the actor. Don't react, be the first, cause friction. Move with instinct: the decisive factor" - Song, Continuing Journeys of a Muslim MC

"This world is very strange. It's becoming very wide, and it's very small. I want a different reality, that's why I make this music. Whatever this world offers, and in many ways, it's pretty good; the world's turning into a more artistic place, into a more place, a place where ethnicity is not only accepted but coming to be celebrated- which is a bit scary - but where it's not denigrated to be ethnic, which was the climate when I was growing up... But for an artist, no matter you're thrown up with, in a way you have to be dissatisfied... You can't be taken in by what people say about the times you live in. You've got to look at it with a slightly journalistic eye, a completely open heart, and almost skeptical in a way; you have to look back and say 'yeah, maybe, but what about THIS? What about THIS?" And then you've got to make a track that is 'THIS', you've got to make a track that is 'THAT'." - Interview, 'Seeking, Stillness' from 'Maghreb Isha & Space' press release

"What is the point in being an artist if you're out there trying to say something? At this time in my life, this is how I feel about art. What are you doing, if you set out to make something? How can you call yourself a documentary filmmaker?"- Interview, 'Incidental Unity' from 'Maghreb Isha & Space' press release

"Is hip-hop itself a genre? If it is then I want to transcend hip-hop too, and in that case- I'm not a hip-hop artist, I'm more. But if, as I think, hip-hop is something bigger than genres, then I'm comfortable with it, and calling myself a hip-hop artist is fine in that case. It's all about people's different perceptions. But I listen to all music, so I am all music, you know? Man, it's a dirty game… labelling… isn't it? I like to push things though, that's all. I don't like to box things, I like to make things free, and that includes hip-hop, and people’s preconceptions of hip-hop. Mangling and changing things is important sometimes."- Interview with Nikesh Shukla of UK Hip-Hop.com website

"I had a dream last night about a piece of art, and I promised to myself that I would make a start" - Dream (from LP, Flowers & Trees)

"We always pickin' up the same old menus / so when I speak, I try to speak like Pingu " - Toki / The Untangling (from LP, Maghreb, Isha & Space)

"Justice is a sandwich prepared by the selfish / Rich, rusted, fiscal economist" - Nightmare on Terror (from LP, From a Western Box)

"We flip the script / You anchorman, still playing this / Islamic fundamentalist bull---- / You ain't got a clue, so I let you know this: / We Cry - We Love - We Kiss / We Hurt - We Breathe and Miss / Don't think we don't feel the injustice / We black in 1950." - Misty (from LP, From a Western Box)