One of my favorite artists of the last couple of decades, Yasiin Bey, made a killer point about Hip Hop and the Hip Hop community back in his debut solo album from late 1999, a thought that resonates a lot with me and my involvement in the Mozilla movement over the last 15 years.

Talking about the Hip Hop scene at the turn of the century, here’s some of what then Mos Def had to say in “Fear Not of Man”, the first track on “Black on Both Sides.”

It’s a lot of things goin on y’all

21st century is comin

20th century almost done

A lot of things have changed

A lot of things have not, mainly us

We gon’ get it together right? I believe that

Listen.. people be askin me all the time,

“Yo Mos, what’s gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?”

“Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin?”

I tell em, “You know what’s gonna happen with Hip-Hop?”

“Whatever’s happening with us”

If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out

If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright

People talk about Hip-Hop like it’s some giant livin in the hillside

comin down to visit the townspeople

We are Hip-Hop

Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop

So Hip-Hop is goin where we goin

So the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin

ask yourself.. where am I goin? How am I doin?

I’ve been feeling and saying this about Mozilla since before “Black on Both Sides” was released and I’m certain it’s more true today than it ever was before.

If you’re a part of the Mozilla community and you’re asking other people where Firefox is going or where Firefox OS is going, take a minute to ask yourself, where am I going?

Mozilla has a bright future ahead of it, one that depends on all of us and the many, many more yet to join our movement. Where will you take Mozilla today?