Certain topics seemed to bubble to the surface in many of the on-the-record chats we recorded over the course of 2016, things that were floating around in everyone’s mind: the U.S. election, the death of icons like David Bowie and Prince, the way technology continues to warp our brains and change our lives, the legitimacy of political art, the potential paths forward for a rebuilding music industry, and the possible effects of this often-ominous year going into 2017.
Here are some words of wisdom that helped us navigate such big ideas courtesy of Danny Brown, David Lynch, M.I.A., RZA, Sonny Rollins, DeRay Mckesson, Dev Hynes, Lykke Li, and more.
“David Bowie’s music is a moving target. Just when you think you got the bullseye, it shifts. And to his credit, on to death, it’s still shifting—David Bowie is a moving target even after he’s gone.”
—Longtime Bowie guitarist Carlos Alomar
“It takes time to get [music] back to a more political place. But with this election, it seems like people are honestly worked up about it—and not just worked up as a trending topic.”
“As a human being, I would probably be more intelligent, more fulfilled, and less anxious if I didn’t have constant access to social media and the internet.”
“We aren’t born woke. Something wakes us up.”
—Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson
“Music is a strange thing. It goes into us, and a whole bunch of things start happening. It’s like a gift.”
“You can either be a musician or you can wear a hat. You can’t do both.”
“You can’t write music when you’re high. You can’t do much of anything productive.”
“A perpetual free option doesn’t make for a viable music industry—what are you telling people about the value of music? You need to give them an alternative that’s attractive, reasonably priced, and fits the way they want to consume music. That is the holy grail.”
“Prince was the main person who showed me to be myself at the fullest, and he still teaches me that to this day. I’m still learning things from Prince.”
