- If you look everywhere around you,
it's kinda what James Brown said,
is that "Every piece of music after him
"you could hear a little bit 'a James Brown."
That's, like, Black History in a nutshell.
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- And I think black history is so important
because it's kind of your time to be celebrated.
- There should be a month where we celebrate
amazing leaders that fought for freedom for everybody.
- It gives a more complete picture
of the history of the United States.
- Black History Month means people can overcome
a lot of sad, oppressive things and come out
being big and beautiful and shine right through.
- It's a story about civil disobedience.
It's about people grabbing power.
- The first book I ever read where I was like,
I relate to this so much, was Black Boy by Richard Wright.
It was about poverty, and struggle,
and tryin' to overcome obstacles,
and that was the first time I was like "Wow."
- Learning about hip-hop when I was young,
graffiti, MCing, DJing, breaking.
Without that I wouldn't be who I was today.
- Black folk in America came over in ships.
Look at the way that you came in.
But you look at yourself now and you're like,
whoa, we are fucking blowing up.
- Do I listen to those stories and identify with them,
regardless of what color I am?
Yeah!
And I think it's important for everyone to hear this stuff.
- I think of black leaders such as Angela Davis.
I admire them, I read all their books.
- And Latinos, like, we're crossing rivers,
and we're crossing borders, and we're in the back
of cars, sometimes, to get here.
And it's almost like, whoa, look at them.
We can do it too.
- Just close your eyes, and listen to the stories,
and you will relate because they're American stories.
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