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The eldest of two sons born to parents who were both
teachers, Brooklyn born, Talib Kweli Greene is
the latest in a selection of 'conscious' rappers dedicated
to the unearthing of a demonstrable truth in rap and
ghetto music. Considering that the Arabic translation
of Talib Kweli means “student of truth,” it’s perhaps
only natural that his ethically grounded and socially
relevant approach to MCing was destined from birth.
But this might lead to the assumption that Kalib's album
Quality, out now on MCA Records is somehow
preachy or pretentious - but you couldn't be more wrong.
Taking the social and moral cue from MCs like Lewis
Parker, Kalib Kweli has fashioned from the disparate
shards of beats and breaks and retro flavoured hip-hop
an original urban gospel as cool and effortless as the
funky riffs that underscore it. And like any gospel
it's as much about adequate communication as it is about
morality:
“Hip-hop became a way for me to write and be cool; it
gave me a language to speak to my peers,” he continues.
“In junior high, I started writing rhymes for my friends,
and then I eventually began writing rhymes for myself.”
Even as a child, Kweli is sadi to have been a gifted
writer. In elementary school, he began writing plays,
poetry and short stories, however, he had his eyes set
on becoming a baseball player. “I wasn’t really one
of the cool kids,” Kweli recalls.
In high school, Kweli found a kindred spirit in Dante
Smith, whose equal passion for hip-hop saw him eventually
gain notoriety as Mos Def. Hanging out in Washington
Square Park in downtown Manhattan, where aspiring MCs
from all five boroughs of NYC the two of them would
converge to battle it out.
In 1994, on a visit to Cincinnati, Ohio, Kweli met Tony
“DJ Hi-Tek” Cottrell, who, at the time, was the producer
for a local hip-hop group named Mood. Impressed by Kweli’s
rhyme style, Hi-Tek tapped him to appear on several
tracks on Mood’s 1997 album, Doom. That same year, Kweli
and Hi-Tek released “Fortified Live” as a single on
Rawkus under the name Reflection Eternal. The track,
which appears on the first volume of the Soundbombing
compilation series, became an instant underground classic
that immediately established the duo as an up-and-coming
force to be reckoned with.
At a time when mainstream hip-hop was both dominated
and stifled by self-indulgent blagg about money, cars,
jewelry, hoes and clothes, Kweli teamed up with Mos
Def to record and release an album as Black Star. Articulate,
conscietious and addressing issues of social consciousness
and self-love the record inspired a new rap fantasy
- a fantasy based as much on shaking your mind as much
as your ass:
“As a resource, hip-hop has been greater than any music
we have,” says Kweli. “The possibilities for what we
can do in our communities, for people’s self esteem
or their economic situation is what is so exciting.
It’s beautiful that I can use this resource, sell records
and still just be Talib Kweli.”
In 1999, Kweli and Mos Def teamed up once again to spearhead
the making of Hip-Hop for Respect, a four-song maxi-single
featuring 41 MCs—including Kool G. Rap, De La Soul,
Common and Dead Prez—who collaborated to protest the
murder of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant
shot 41 times by New York City police that same year.
Kweli’s next creative project dropped in 2000 when he
and Hi-Tek reunited to record Reflection Eternal.
The new record, Quality is a sign that those early inspired
flights of imagination are coming to maturation.
Upbeat, sexy and with the usual parlances of jazz and
r n b thrown around fluid but penetrating raps it's
an album of ecstatic highs and blessed, bruising blues
with some genuinely moving highlights, not least 'Talk
To You (Lil' Darlin) featuring the angelic Bilal on
vocals.
Musically, Kweli enlisted many of today’s leading hip-hop
producers to lay Quality’s sonic foundation, including
Ayatollah, Dave West, Megahertz, Kanye West, Jay Dee,
DJ Quik, the Soulquarians, Da’ Houd and DJ Scratch.
Kweli also collaborated with a host of notable guest
stars, including his Rawkus label mates Mos Def, Pharoahe
Monch and newly-signed hip-hop–soul singer Novel, along
with Common, Black Thought, Res and Bilal.
“Quality is about me growing as a man and as an artist
and continuing what I’ve been known to always do, which
is place quality over quantity,” Kweli explains. “I
will never do a record without some sense of responsibility.
Even if you don’t agree with what I have to say, even
if I’m speaking something that’s not relevant to your
life, you’ll still be able to appreciate it.”
Alan Sargeant for Crud Magazine© 2002
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