Party people in the place to be his name is Talib Kweli. His light is reflecting and radiating throughout the hip hop community. Why? Maybe its because he is like a refreshing drink of water to a community suffering from drought. He is one of the few artists willing to take accountability for what he does and willing to get down and dirty and even political at times. Those of you from NY heard him awhile before the rest of us could. My first taste of Talib was on the Lyricist Lounge CD, nah, let me scratch that. One night I went to Tower Records with a friend and he picked up the single. At first, I was like, what the heck is that, it was Black Star's first joint. We got in the car and he popped it in. I was thinking this is gonna be some old crazy shit and as soon as I heard the first loop of the beat I was hooked. There was also the birth of Underground Lady, but this is not about me, this is about Talib Kweli.
So the first question that you ask any artist is what's the name mean. His name means The Seeker of Truth and Knowledge, it was given to him by his mother. How fitting, this is a man who has sought to reveal the truth in his career and to spread knowledge throughout our community. He has graced us with his knowledge. Talib is now on the overground circuit and he and his partner in crime DJ Hi-Tek have produced an album that is sure to satisfy us all.
The mighty duo hooked up and started recording even though they were long distance. Riding the dirty dog (Greyhound) back and forth from Cincinnati to New York and recorded songs on the weekends. "This kid from Cincinnati really blew me away. Hi-Tek's beats just had a sound to them: a carefree, laid back, feel that was hard..." Talib raves about his counterpart, but his counterpart raves about him all in the same. "The way Kweli used his voice, he was like an instrument to the track." When you got two cats who respect each others talents as much as these two and who have a similar mission, you can't help but notice the outcome. Their upcoming debut "Train of Thought" has a purpose, like all things that seem to come from the dynamic duo. "A lot of albums I listen to don't have any train of thought. They're just songs strung together to represent certain regions, but no real stream of consciousness in the music..." Talib explains about their album.
In my mind I am thinking have these brothers answered my prayers. The lack of consciouness and meaning in hip hop music has bothered me for some time now. I am tired of artists like No Limit, Pastor Troy, and Cash Money dominating air waves and spitting out a lot of bullshit to our community. I can't help but think that maybe the boys from Reflection Eternal checked out VAU and saw what I was posting and thought, Hmmmm let's go ahead and show them all that hip hop can have a purpose.
Where does he see the future of hip hop going? "I don't like to get caught in those types of discussions because they usually go nowhere. The bottom line is that it makes money. But you can only get away with fuckery for so long. People dealing with positive things-those are the peole who are going to be remembered in the cannon of history forever."
and with that I end it all...
