People underestimate the hip-hop audience and the capacity to understand politics when it's part of music.
— Michael Franti
I've always found that the poorer the places that I go, the more smiles I see, and the more happiness I see.
It really is a strange time we're living in, when saying 'Don't kill people' is considered a radical point of view.
The music industry has been hijacked by corporate interests, but the way music affects people and resonates with them hasn't changed.
Not all artists have a responsibility to be socially or politically aware, but they do have a responsibility to make great art. They have to find some truth and put that in their music.
Bonnaroo has kind of become the granddaddy of all American festivals. The thing I love about it most is that it wasn't born out of picking the top ten bands off the Billboard chart and creating a festival around it.
I went to Iraq because I wanted to see what one year of occupation had done to Iraqi society, and I went to the West Bank and Gaza Strip because I wanted to see what three generations of occupation had done to Palestinian society. I found a lot more hopelessness and despair in Palestine.
If we do not change our negative habits toward climate change, we can count on worldwide disruptions in food production, resulting in mass migration, refugee crises and increased conflict over scarce natural resources like water and farm land. This is a recipe for major security problems.
Playing on the streets of Iraq, or in Israel or the Gaza strip, I'd sing angry protest songs against war. People would say, 'Make us clap, make us dance, and laugh and sing.' It really made me think about the importance of happy music.
I don't know if music can change the world overnight but I know that music can help someone make it through a difficult night.
We can bomb the world to pieces, but we can't bomb it into peace.
No life's worth more than any other, no sister worth less than any brother.
Everyone deserves music.
I drive a hybrid. It's a Ford Escape. That's my only car.
I'm always trying to find optimistic ways to express myself.
The corporate media is there to push the agenda of the sponsors, and many of those sponsors are weapons manufacturers. So it stands to reason that you won't get a diversity of opinions on television.
In the '80s, Ronald Reagan inspired me to become politicized, because I grew up in that era when everything I cared about was under attack.
To sit back and say, 'Oh, we're going to let the government do whatever they want, right or wrong,' is giving up.
Jamaica's a country of great dichotomy. On the one hand you have a tourist industry with great beaches and resorts, but on the other you have such great poverty and the violence that goes along with that.
The world can't have a global solution to climate change with U.S. action alone; and the world can't have a global solution without U.S. action.
During my travels in Iraq, Israel, Gaza, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Europe and all over the United States, I have seen and heard the voices of people who want change. They want the stabilization of the economy, education and healthcare for all, renewable energy and an environmental vision with an eye on generations to come.
When I first started out, I thought it was enough to make an angry song that pointed out the problems of the world.
My parents said sticks and stones will break your bones but names will never hurt you. But I always felt a sense of exhilaration after a fight; it was the names that really hurt me.
Today we are in a war against war - music is our power.
Sometimes the hardest thing to do is just to stay human.
Every single soul is a poem.
I'm not an idealist. I know we're not going to be living in a world that's peace and love all the time. But we can live in a world where we kill each other a lot less.
My mother birthed three children and she adopted myself and another African-American son. My adoptive parents were Finnish. I grew up in a white picket neighborhood.
After a show, I'll get the 16-year-old white kid whose lip is pierced, his head is shaved and his parents hate him, and the young gangster from the screwed-up 'hood, and they say that now they realize there's someone out there who thinks like they do.
San Francisco has always been a haven for misfits and weirdos. I'm both of those, which is why I came here.
Music is sunshine. Like sunshine, music is a powerful force that can instantly and almost chemically change your entire mood. Music gives us new energy and a stronger sense of purpose.
When you're in Jamaica, unless you're in a tourist spot, you don't hear Bob Marley; you mostly hear dance hall music.
Investing now in safe-guarding people by helping them to adapt to climate change, will help save money and lives while building resilience.
There are so many things to be worried about, and I wanted to make a record that people could put on, and it would lift them up the way the sun did for me each day.
I think my soul is intact, but my methods of reaching people are completely different.
Music has the power to bring people together like no other art form.
Through music I either tame my demons or unleash them and allow them to be what they are. I don't want the music to be about provocation, I want the music to bring you to a place where you feel at home.
Power to the peaceful!
All the freaky people make the beauty of the world.
