Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Ear Drum
[3.5/5]
Of all the MCs who have walked the perilous path between hip-hop’s over- and underground the past few years, no one has been more ambitious-or more vilified-than Talib Kweli. His complex rhymes won the praise of Jay-Z and 50 Cent and the admiration of rap progressives, but those strident, high-pitched verses have also left some in both camps unfulfilled. Yet while Kweli has realized “I can’t be everything to everyone at the same time,” he hasn’t abandoned his beautiful struggle of reconciliation. On his first album for his new imprint, Blacksmith, Kweli drops the same far-ranging, uncompromising lyrics, taking hip-hop to task even as he appeals to the mainstream with guests like will.i.am. and Bun B. The difference is the ear-pleasing moves-like “Soon The New Day,” a duet with Norah Jones-are far less self-conscious than Kweli’s previous crossovers. Toss the tuneless “Hot Thing,” and the richly jazzy, Afrocentric groove of this disc is Kweli’s most consistent ear drumming yet. (BLACKSMITH/WARNER BROS.) Dan LeRoy
ROCKS LIKE:
Kanye West’s The College Dropout
Common’s Be
Talib Kweli And Hi-Tek’s Reflection Eternal
IN-STORE SESSION WITH TALIB KWELI
You’re one of the first people to hype your album through the online virtual community Second Life. Are you a big fan, or was that a record company suggestion?
Yeah, it was something a dude at Warner Bros. suggested. He really knows his stuff on the digital side. It’s kinda freaky to me, man. It’s like I’m Neo in The Matrix.
Do you know your avatar, by any chance?
Ah… I don’t even remember, man. I haven’t been on there since, like, Christmas.
There’s lots of talk about the new regionalism in hip-hop, and how people are trying to appeal to smaller and smaller markets. But it seems a song like “Country Cousins,” where you’re teaming up with a Southern star-Bun B of UGK-is kind of a rebuttal.
Well, you gotta remember, it’s always been like that in hip-hop. It used to be all New York, and then at some point it was all the West Coast, and now it’s all the South. All I’m saying is that it’s not that one style is good and one is bad. Actually, me and Bun had done that track two or three years ago, speakin’ to these trends I noticed. So it’s not somethin’ I just came up with.
As a rapper from Brooklyn: Can New York ever become hip-hop’s most important city again?
First of all, New York is the capital of hip-hop. Just like [Washington] D.C. is the capital of the country. But it’s not necessarily the most popular city in the country at the time. It’s frustrating for a dude from New York, though. Because he hears 10 songs, and eight of ’em are from the South. It makes him feel like he don’t have a chance.
The song “Say Something” is such a perfect track for Jean Grae-it’s like you’re both trying to see who’s more pissed off. Was that one written with anyone specific in mind?
Really, no. It was the track that was very inspirational. Will.i.am came up with a very aggressive track, and I wanted to write a real aggressive rhyme-but still intelligent.
Your freestyle performance on MTV’s Wild ‘N Out, where you got eight points in a round of Wildstyle-is it the hip-hop version of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak? Can anyone break that record?
[Laughs.] I’m sure there are a lot of MCs who could do what I did. Any good MC could do it, I think. But I think there’s this perception that I’m not a freestyler. And what they don’t realize is that that’s something I grew up doing. Studying experimental theater in school, doing improv. That’s where I’m from. People think they know me because they’ve been sold an image. That’s why it’s important to control your image, man. –Dan LeRoy
