“As I’ve submerged myself in news of the revolutions sweeping North Africa and the Middle East, I wanted desperately to feel part of what was going on. And then it hit me: This is what white people were doing to me after Obama was elected!”

My family life and early political life – being exposed to the news constantly, being enrolled in an Afrocentric education program, and doing the extracurriculars I did – played a huge role in me finding my path.

I am not a yogi yet, but I aspire to have more balance in my life.

Okay, well, if motion is the constant, how can I remain in motion?

2010 Foursquare Mayor Of The Year

Remember something about attention. Yes, it’s possible to buy, grab, or even steal it. But it’s far better to earn it.

There’s certainly a lot of noise in the hip-hop world now [that] I don’t pay active attention to, but to the extent that I represent some flavor of what’s happening in hip-hop – it’s subconscious.

By the time I got to Harvard, I feel like I knew who I was, and my job there was to throw as much against the wall as possible, to see what would stick.

I don’t know that I’m post-anything. I’d like to think maybe I’m post-bullshit.

You can call me namastunde or surfatunde. Either works.

Mostly I try to be the best example of me that I can be.

As far as hip-hop is concerned, I’m no expert and rarely think consciously about how I “represent” hip-hop.

I care about the diversity of the mindset of the people creating our future, and the windows through which we see it, and the tools we use to build it.

I work in comedy, journalism, media, and technology, many of which don’t have a lot of black faces in visible positions. I walk through Brooklyn with a surfboard. It’s fun to challenge and expand people’s expectations.

There are so many ways to be and to be black at the same time, but we’re finally seeing that full range expressed much more widely than before.

New York has been the best gift, in that the city pushes me to so many next levels.

Knowing that “me” is inextricably linked to blackness, [I try to enjoy] the process of expanding beyond the expected boundaries set by existing culture, norms and media.

You know, by 1936, Hitler was already talking very loudly about his desire to expand to the east.

Mussolini, in 1935, went and then in the next year, conquered Ethiopia, acquiring himself a colony.

The custom is often noticed in the Old Testament, and still prevails in the east, and in some of the newly discovered South Sea Islands.

The guys I grew up with, my cinematic heroes, have always been men of few words, but of action. Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach.

I got a little house in East L.A. and did the gardening. I was doing some acting here and there, doing my own thing… getting back to reality.

D’you think I picked the East Side like Columbus picked America?

If you want to go east, don’t go west.

I’ve benefited from the best of both societies and both cultures, East and West.