Your whole appearance is a lie and it could never be true.
And if you really loved yourself, then you would try and be you.

Phife, “Butter,” from A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, 1991

The business of beauty isn’t a natural model;
It’s built to be the opposite of the cultures we topple.
These magazines got you caught in a hustle,
Cause when you starve yourself, your body doesn’t burn fat, it burns muscles.

Immortal Technique, “Natural Beauty,” The Martyr, 2011

Kanye West • “All Falls Down” • 2004

It seems we living the American Dream,
But the people highest up got the lowest self-esteem.
The prettiest people do the ugliest things
For the road to riches and diamond rings.

Kanye West, “All Falls Down,” The College Dropout, 2004

Pharoahe Monch • “The Truth” • 1999

Truth brings light, light refracts off the mirror,
Visions of yourself and error could never be clearer.
The truth is that you ugly…
Not on the outside, but in the inside.
On the outside, you frontin’ you lovely.

– Pharoahe Monch, “The Truth,” Internal Affairs, 1999

To everyone out there who’s a little different:

I say, “Damn a magazine, these is God’s fingerprints.”

You can call me ugly, but can’t take nothing from me;

I am what I am, doctor, you ain’t gotta love me.

Brother Ali, “Forest Whitaker,” Shadows on the Sun, 2003.

Your whole appearance is a lie and it could never be true.
And if you really loved yourself, then you would try and be you.

Phife, “Butter,” from A Tribe Called Quest’s The Low End Theory, 1991. More from Phife. Rest in forever peace, Malik Taylor, the rapper known as Phife Dawg, who died Wednesday at the age of 45. 1970-2016.

Girls, don’t run that shit that beauty’s only skin deep,
Cause I don’t want no girl with a Brillo face,
Or the type that’ll leave Jheri Curl juice on my pillow case.

Lord Finesse, “I Like My Girls With a Boom,” Return of the Funky Man, 1992. More Lord Finesse quotes…

Truth brings light, light refracts off the mirror,
Visions of yourself and error could never be clearer.
The truth is that you ugly…
Not on the outside, but in the inside;
On the outside, you frontin’ you lovely.

Pharoahe Monch, “The Truth,” Internal Affairs, 1999. More Pharoahe Monch quotes >