Yasiin Bey has a residence in Paris and has deep connections to the city. As a practicing Muslim, he also has deep connections to Islam. Bey has always been one of Hip-Hop’s most intelligent and outspoken activists, both in lyrics and deed, and he’s given a 21-minute interview that is one of the most complex and brutally honest assessments of yesterday’s tragic and disgusting attacks in Paris and the state of the world, generally, that you will ever hear. His words are far more powerful than ours. Here are some quotes, but this is well worth 20 minutes of your time:

“This is the time to be talking about the dignity and nobility of being a human being.”

“This is what’s really at stake. They’re trying to turn us into machines…The states, the politicians, the so-called doers of good who claim to have the interests of the planet at heart, and it’s a lie.”

“And, by the way, a big giant ‘FUCK OFF TO ISIS.’ You don’t represent nothing about Islam or nothing about the prophet. And another giant ‘FUCK OFF’ to everybody trying to say ’see, this is Islam’s fault.’”

“That’s the measure of a civilization—not how well you agree, but how well you disagree. That’s civilized.”

“What are we leaving to our children? What examples are we leaving to our children?”

“Everybody who’s sad about Paris should be just as sad about Tamir Rice.”

“We have to start loving and caring about each other because, guess what? If we did, none of this stuff would be going on.”

“Read that Universal Declaration of Human Rights. People need to see how the majority of governments in this world are breaking every part (of it).”

Read: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

“It is a trickle down theory. The state is running around killing people, so the people’s like, ‘you know, murder must be alright.’” “Who is more violent than the state against humanity?”

“People feel when it’s a couple hundred people that they can look at and see, but nobody feel it when it’s a half a million Iraqi kids that die from sanctions.”

“Don’t trust the media neither, because they’re not there to give you the truth and make you feel balanced or tell you the facts. They want you to feel nervous so that you will trust the state more…”

“This is a ratings bonanza for all these quote un-quote news media people. They know people’s eyes is glued to the screen. They’re in shock, they’re in awe, they’re hurt…and in the interim, they’re going to try to sell you every widget and digit and every other useless damn thing that you can imagine.”

“You are not going to get a better world hating your fellow man. You can hate the condition but you have to love your brother and sister.”

“Love must and will prevail.”

“To keep a man in a hole, you gotta get in that hole with him…Whoever you’re digging a whole for, you’re really digging it for yourself.”

Yasiin has also released a song titled “No Colonial Fiction,” that addresses many of the themes of which he spoke in the interview.

Related: University of Missouri Students Fight the Power & Take Aim at the Media (Video)