“Beats are extremely, extremely powerful. When the beat drops, you nod your head. Like yes. The affirmative. Dr. Dre puts out the Chronic. All of a sudden the beats are so hypnotic and the lyrics are like ‘Bitches ain’t shit,’ and we start making excuses. ‘Oh I just like the beat. I just like to dance to this. I really don’t care about what he’s saying.’ And so over time we built up a tolerance for bullshit lyrics.
“So 10 years after ‘Fight the Power’ we’re listening to ‘Jigga my nigga, bitches better get it right.’ And we’re just like, ‘Yeah it’s all right. That’s dope,’ because we’ve built up a tolerance for bullshit. We’re in the haze of addiction. So Nas is correct when he says, ‘You’re a slave to a page in my rap book.’ We become literally addicted. There are no metaphors anymore.”
— Saul Williams x Prefix