People From Chicago

"Try not to measure your success by the success of others. Success should be defined by one person...Yourself."

"Fear and Sex are the two most effective weapons that are used against the people. Tempering desire motivates liberation."

"Consider power as NOT getting people to obey you, but getting people to work in harmony with you with the goal being mutual benefit."

"Greed redefined and corrupted what true power is. Domination is for the weak, Harmony is the true sign of strength."

"In darkness is where we truly find ourselves, in light we only find others and in others you cannot find yourself."

"Knowledge alone is not power, knowledge plus action equals power. Knowledge is useless without action and vice versa."

"Come across as very calm, mental state is Zen like. Always had a lot of heart, never been the tin type"

"I'm not a prophet but Fahrenheit 1/15 is being quoted by preachers. Far from being a leader but I'm still being invited by teachers."

"We all KNOW better, but do we actually DO better?"

"My teacher's like, "Mr. Jaco?" "Yes?" "With all that knowledge, You aint trying to go to college? Be a lawyer or a doctor, Get a whole lotta dollars? Rather degrade women and glorify violence?" "Well the work that works for me might not work for you No homework, I got work to do.""

"The future's cloudy and it's rainin on the poor class. Road to peace is closed, heavy traffic on the war paths"

"Your child's future was the first to go with budget cuts, if you think that hurts then wait here comes the upper-cut, the school was garbage in the first place that's on the up and up."

"And baby girl what does it matter where your purse from. Your hair done, your nails did, your ass fat...but you're dumb."

"Glenn Beck is a racist, Limbaugh is a racist, Gaza strip was getting bombed Obama didn't say shit."

"I think that all the silence is worse than all the violence,Fear is such a weak emotion that's why I despise it."

"A definition of ignorance is not KNOWING what we DO & improvement is handicapped when we don't DO what we KNOW."

"So tell my enemies that they can’t injure me, I know that irritates, you have my sympathies."

"And so it seems that I'm, sewing jeans. And, 1st and 15 is just a sewing machine. So I, cut the pattern and I, sew in seams. And, button in this hustling then publically, I'm Buddy Lee. There's no bustin' them and cuffin' them is like. Ushering in the regime, they want me to make Prince pants. But I withstand, I ain't gotten into that. A little big (B.I.G.) in the waist, two-pocket (Tupac-it) on the back. Call them Lu-vi's, O.G.'s covered in blue dye"

"Made me a ripper, deliver like a river, content a little more thicker, slicker...and they said oil and water don't mix, now they all down at the beach washing off the fish."

"I only fear God, know the weapons of the weak, the weakness of the heart, and never fall asleep..."

"I love my city really hope that God bless it, have my mind moving faster than that Hog in the Hedges"

"Gangsta rap-based filmings became the buildin blocks For children with leakin ceilings catchin drippins with pots Coupled with compositions from Pac, Nas's "It Was Written" In the mix with my realities and feelings Living conditions, religion, ignorant wisdom and artistic vision I began to jot, tap the world and listen,"

"Hennessy and Hypnotic swallowin, hydroponic coughin and All the world's ills, sittin' on chrome 24-inch wheels"

"A match made in Heaven, set the fires in Hell"

"Life ain't meant to come around twice, that's why I gotta get it right. They said I gotta get it honest, now I gotta give them light, but sleep on it, that's why God gave you night"

"If you open up your eyes and imagine. Expand your horizon with rhyming and rapping. Quit rapping and rhyming bout cocaine supplying. And clapping is anyone out there or are yall all absent?"

"Jay gave me a co-sign like I was RocaWear, but be clear I'm not the air/heir I'm the water, fire and the earth That means I'm doing dirt, spitting flames and quenching thirst"

"Heavy problems genocide desensitized environments Sometimes make it hard to sympathize, pardon"

"Flowers she would pick like guitar strings, for a real good whiff of how how life behind par seems."

"Didn't have a clue that the rapper was helping the rapers, raiders of the villages, the pillagers of the school....shooters of the innocents, tortures of the witnesses, burners of the businesses..and my bracelet was the fuel."

"I used to hate hip-hop, because the women degraded. But Too Short made me laugh, like a hypocrite I played it; a hypocrite I stated, though I only recited half omitting the word b*tch, cursing I wouldn't say it. Me and dog couldn't relate, until a b*tch I dated."

"Rap records pressured to laugh, at a life not fast."

"The truth.. is limitless in its range, If you drop a 'T' and look at it in reverse it could hurt"

"To gain a better understanding, I'm just trying to make it real/reel. Like a fisherman, Pon De River fam. I Pon My Bank, deposit my thoughts. Till my mind draws a blank and I withdraw from checking. I'll leave that with ya'll for a second..."

"We all trying to get to where the suffering ends. In front of the Most High, being judged for our sins. Can't front for the Most High."

"But don't forget the blessing is in the struggle. The Most Forgiving will forgive it if you stay repentant and hustle."

"For we all are sinners. Bless us to be amongst the winners when it ends. But until then please strengthen the mission within our hearts.All praise is due to God"

"Before I start, like to make sure I'm smart. Gather my composure, rather my swagger and my couture.Pivot my fitted, then begin to rivet, with a change of lyric. In other words, I reposition how I sit it. Then make you feel it, like I mispronounced “filet.”"

"My most coveted thing is a high self-esteem, and a low tolerance for them telling me how to lean, see the most important parts are the ones that are unseen, cause the wings don't make you fly and the crown don't make you king"

"If it hurt me to have to give up a painting I figured it had to hurt them to write the check. That's how I came up with the price for my work."

"I aim to remind the warrior within us all to navigate through the unknown that we may meet the morning, improved and unenslaved."

"My soul is a canvas stretched across four wooden corners and tacked with copper nails that sink into the edges of timber like teeth. My art is nothing less than my salvation."

"Being an artist means seeing things and never having the ability to shut your eyes."

"This dress is something I would want to be buried in! (On wanting to be buried in the painting she converted into a dress.)"

"It's not who you know, but who you are that matters most."

"The question really arises is it a republic if you can keep it, question have we kept it? And the answer is no! No we have not kept it. Since 2001 we have in effect an elected monarchy. And ah, meaning a country which Nixon's view 'when a president does it, it is legal'. The president says it's not illegal. That is the attitude long after Nixon of John Yoo, who was the advisor to George W. Bush, of David Addington, Bush Cheney's legal advisor. Essentially there are no limits on presidential power except those which he chooses to put on himself. Obama following on, has in effect decriminalized torture which is as illegal and criminal as anything can be under international law and domestic law, a number of domestic laws and international laws, which we have ratified to investigate, and follow-up if there is any credible charge. Obama has chosen not to investigate or indict any higher up for that process of torture."

"Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury. An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it. She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately."

"EVERY attack now made on WikiLeaks and Julian Assange was made against me and the release of the Pentagon Papers at the time."

"I've always been with the one who rebels against false values. My heroes now are Ralph Nader and Daniel Ellsberg."

"We weren't on the wrong side. We are the wrong side."