101 Quotes by Boots Riley

If you press your ear to the turf that is stolenYou can hear the sound of limitations explodingPlease sir, may we have another portion?We're children of the beast that dodged the abortionNeck placed firm 'tween the floor and the FlorsheimWe'll shut your shit down, don't call it extortionCaution -- we're coming for your headSo call the Feds and get files to shredEvery textbook read said bring you the breadBut guess what we got you instead?We got the guillotine, we got the guillotine

I just look at music as a retreat from organizing. It's like a tug-of-war with me. Music can be effective, but it's not any good if there isn't a grass-roots movement going on to support it.

My father joined the NAACP when he was 12, in the '50s. He was part of the organizing efforts that led to some of the first sit-ins in North Carolina.

You can't get much done by yourself. Speaking as someone who made a movie - and it took hundreds of people to make it happen - I can say that.

The album 'Party Music' is a beautiful album, and people need to hear it.

This idea of 'cool capitalism' is still capitalism. It doesn't matter if Elon Musk quotes Nas.

I listen to everything from The Cure and The Clash to Prince and George Clinton.

There are a lot of people out there doing cool work. I went to South Africa with Talib Kweli and the Roots for a couple of weeks. And even a lot of the groups that aren't called 'political' or 'revolutionary' have a lot more to say than what you hear on the singles.

I can run the gamut with beats that no one else would think of. I'm not a trained musician, so I focus on what feels right before I dispatch to writing.