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Protest is patriotic. Since the beginning of musical time, American singers and songwriters have used their talent and bully pulpits to show us America's strengths and shortcomings.

Other than Green Day, we haven't had a lot of protest music over the past few decades.

The nice thing about a protest song is that it takes the complaint, the fussing, the finger-pointing, and gives it an added component of sociable harmony.

I mean, there's a hell of a lot of grounds for protest, but you don't do it through music.

I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.

You can't just sit around and make protest albums all your life; eventually it comes to the point where you have to do something.

I think when people say 'real hip-hop,' they want it more buried in the streets. They want it more connected to the streets and the grime and the roughness of the streets. They don't want the fluff.

Ultimately I am happy that everybody is embracing hip hop and the sounds from the streets.

Hip-hop is the streets. Hip-hop is a couple of elements that it comes from back in the days... that feel of music with urgency that speaks to you. It speaks to your livelihood and it's not compromised. It's blunt. It's raw, straight off the street - from the beat to the voice to the words.

The power of protest depends not only on how many turn out, but also on what legislative, judicial, and civil society institutions exist to enact the will of those marching in the streets.