At the end of the day we did rescue it, we certainly kept it running for a number of years longer than it probably would have been running. A store that I worked at was going down, so we decided to try to rescue it. As artists, our work is a lot more visible. But there are activists and store-owners and shop-owners that didn’t necessarily get the props that Mos Def and I did for their work in the community. I am blessed to be an artist, being able to draw more attention to what Mos Def and I did with the bookstore. That bookstore speaks to my job as a man, to be responsible to my community. How does the bookstore fit into a larger picture of political awareness? You founded the Nkiru Center, an African-American book store and cultural center in Brooklyn. For every Nelly record they play on the radio, they should play an Immortal Technique record as well. The problem is not “too much pimps” and “too much gangsters,” the problem is the lack of balance in representing what rap is out there. Everyone should rap from their own perspective.
I certainly listen to it, I certainly enjoy it. But I’m not from that lifestyle, so I don’t rap about that stuff.
You don’t hear me talking bad about other rappers. Wouldn’t this seem like a very middle-class critique of something coming out of the ghetto? You are associated with a critique of mainstream rap as too materially obsessed and violent. I was more upset for people like Little Brother and De La Soul andany of those that have been told their stuff is too intelligent for BET. Blige and Kanye West, called “I Try.” What I was told by my inside person was that it was just “too conscious.” I couldn’t really care less whether BET plays my videos or not. They’re like, “The gangster stuff was popular, so anything that deviates from that must be unpopular and must not be worth giving a shot.” As far as mine, the particular song in question was a song I did with Mary J. Of course, BET – the people running things over there are very limited in what they feel appeals to black youth. You’ve said that BET has never played any of your videos on “106 & Park.” Have BET and mainstream outlets already pigeon-holed you? Even though conscious-rapper is a positive term, I wouldn’t want to just be some conscious-rapper. If they automatically put me in a box, that makes them think they know what I’m going to come with every time. So I try to put music out there that has positive messages.Īnd I make conscious music, but I hate to be labeled as that, as a prefix to my name, because people are given to shortcut thinking. You want people to recognize you as the artist that you are, that you have no restrictions, that you can go anywhere with it, you know? The music I make reflects the balance within society, where we are overwhelmed with negative images of our people. Whatever you do, you wouldn’t want to be pigeon-holed because it would limit what you’re able to do in your career. Talib Kweli: I don’t care if you do activist work, or just pop-culture. Here he speaks to Campus Progress about his distaste for being labeled a “conscious” artist, his criticisms of the current state of hip-hop, and his forthcoming album, Ear Drum.Ĭampus Progress: You’ve stated in the past that you don’t like being called a “conscious rapper.” Why not, and is there an alternative term to distinguish more cerebral and politically-minded rappers like yourself from the mainstream? He was recently a panelist at Campus Progress’s L.A. Talib has maintained a commitment to raising issues of importance to progressives in both his lyrics and his community work.
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His collaboration with Madlib, Liberation, was offered as a free download online, and despite signing with Geffen, Talib has started his own label, Blacksmith Records, which has already signed innovative MC and producer MF Doom. Despite increasing success and prominence, Talib has continued to forge his own path. In 2002 Kweli released his solo debut Quality, which featured a collaboration with Kanye West, and the popular single “Get By.” With 2004’s Beautiful Struggle, Kweli left his home of Rawkus Records, the label that put out much of the best underground hip-hop of the late 1990s. After releasing his critically acclaimed album Train of Thought as part of the duo Reflection Eternal with DJ Hi-Tek, he went solo. The native Brooklynite’s profile began to rise with the 1998 debut of Black Star, a collaboration with Mos Def that not only reshaped underground hip-hop, but also helped launch Kweli’s solo career. Hip-Hop MC Talib Kweli is widely revered by colleagues and critics for his politically-infused rhymes that often stand apart from the materialistic themes that define the genre’s mainstream.