Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli
Date of Birth	October 3, 1975
Home Town	Brooklyn, New York
Genre	Hip Hop Alternative Hip Hop
Occupation(s)	RApper
Years active	1997-present
Label(s)	Rawkus Geffen Blacksmith / Warner Bros.
Associated acts	Black Star Reflection Eternal DJ Hi-Tek Kanye West Mos Def Krondon Idle Warship Immortal Technique Jean Grae Common
Website	http://talibkewli.com

Talib Kweli Greene (born October 3, 1975), better known as Talib Kweli, is an American MC from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the best-known and critically, if not commercially, successful rappers in alternative hip hop. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker"; his middle name in Swahili means "true". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def. Kweli has two children. Kweli has supported the "Black August Benefit Concert" since its inception, and performs at the show consistently every year.

Biography

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household. His mother is an English professor and his father a sociology professor. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse and Gall whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He later studied experimental theater at New York University (NYU).

Early career (1997-2001)

Kweli made his professional debut in 1997, with featured appearances on "Doom," an album by Cincinnati, Ohio group Mood (Main Flow, Donte, Jahson). In Cincinnati, Kweli also met DJ Hi-Tek and the two collaborated on a few well received underground recordings as Reflection Eternal. Shortly afterwards, upon returning to New York, he reconnected with Mos Def and formed Black Star. Kweli brought along Hi-Tek to produce their first and only album, 1998's Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star. The album, released amidst a late '90s renaissance of conscious, Afrocentric hip hop, was immediately hailed by critics and achieved modest mainstream success. When Kweli and Mos Def parted ways shortly thereafter, Kweli and Hi-Tek continued their Reflection Eternal partnership on the 2000 album Train of Thought, which was likewise met with critical acclaim, but modest sales.

Start of solo career (2002-2003)

Following Train of Thought, Kweli and Hi-Tek split as well, and Kweli used his first truly solo debut to attempt a move toward a more mainstream sound. 2002's Quality, accomplished this goal to some extent, featuring production by a host of different producers, including DJ Quik and Kanye West. The album was met with wide spread critical acclaim and received some mainstream attention thanks to the West-produced single "Get By."

Rise in cultural popularity

In 2004, Talib Kweli, along with Bob Moore's Amazing Mongrels, supported the Beastie Boys on their "Challah At Your Boy World Tour," participated in a photo shoot by the amateur photographer Ben Fink Shaprio, and appeared in a few Dilated Peoples songs, including a live remix later featured on the video game NBA Street Vol. 2.

Kweli has used television appearances extensively to increase visibility, notably on MTV's Wild 'N Out, and several performances on Chappelle's Show with long-time collaborator Mos Def; these performances were a product of host Chappelle's friendship with Kweli. Chappelle in turn participated in a number of skits on Kweli's albums "Train of Thought" and "Quality"- impersonating several people including Nelson Mandela. Kweli also had a guest spot on Kanye West's widely successful debut album The College Dropout on the track "Get 'Em High". West has produced some of Kweli's songs, including his biggest commercial hit "Get By". Kweli can be seen in a commercial for the NCAA's Big Ten Conference, rapping about the league's basketball teams. He also provided the voice of the protagonist in the graffiti-themed video game Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, released in 2006.

Talib and fellow rapper artist Mos Def purchased Nkiru, which is Brooklyn's oldest black-owned bookstore, and converted it into the Nkiru Center for Education and Culture.

Kweli's stature continued to grow, particularly fueled by a line from the track "Moment of Clarity" on Jay-Z's 2003 record, The Black Album: "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli." Kweli responded to this in his track "Ghetto Show" on his 2004 album The Beautiful Struggle by stating "If lyrics sold then truth be told/I'd probably be just as rich and famous as Jay-Z."

Middle career (2004-2006)

In 2004, he released his second solo album and final Rawkus release, The Beautiful Struggle. The album featured much more commercial production, and although Kweli's lyrics retained their socio-political content, he affected a somewhat harder persona. The album failed to cross over into the mainstream and suffered a critical backlash.

In 2005, Kweli released a Mixtape-CD off of his newly formed Blacksmith Records. The project was called Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD, a title which is considered likely a response to the criticism of The Beautiful Struggle.

On Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD, Talib Kweli sampled Ben Kweller's "In Other Words" for his own song "Ms. Hill". In part 7 of Kweller's video podcast series "One Minute Pop Song," Kweller said he found Kweli's use of the song "a little fucked up" due to the fact that it was sampled without permission.

Recent career (2007-2008)

On December 31, 2006, Kweli released nine songs he recorded with acclaimed underground producer Madlib for free download in conjunction with the web site for Stones Throw Records, the label to which Madlib is signed. The album was entitled Liberation, of which Talib later was quoted by XXL magazine as stating releasing the album was liberating to him; "The idea that I could put out an album like that: record it in my house, put it out for free and get that type of response." The album was in 2007 made for sale as a retail item.

For his newest release, Kweli formed his own record label, Blacksmith Records, and has recently signed acclaimed rapper Jean Grae and the group Strong Arm Steady. He also signed a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records for Blacksmith Records. His latest solo album is called Eardrum and was released on Aug 21, 2007. It debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200. The first single was Listen!!!.

Kweli embarked on a national Australian tour in October, 2007. In 2007, a bootleg import CD containing rare and collaborative songs was released entitled Focus. Recently Talib has joined MTV's hit show MADE and filmed an episode in the small town of Arlington, Massachusetts, as well as SMT Studios in New York City. He was the coach of Colin Colt, a young man who wanted to be made into a rap star.

In a rockumentary, Call+Response, headed by Justin Dillon, Kweli performed "Broken Glass" in support of the film's cause: a movement against slavery and human trafficking.

Future projects

On a New Year's blog Talib Kweli confirmed that he has 3 albums planned for 2008: Prisoner of Consciousness, a second Reflection Eternal album, and Party Robot, though as of 2009 none have seen the light of day. In the blog, Kweli also confirmed that he will be working on new albums with Jean Grae, and Dion.

Kweli confirmed in a recent interview with VIBE magazine that the title of his next album will be Prisoner of Consciousness, a title derived from Talib's constant labeling as a "conscious rapper" and based on Nigerian reggae artist Majek Fashek's album "Prisoner of Conscience."

Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek have both said they are recording a second Reflection Eternal album which will be a follow-up to Train of Thought.

In March 2008, Kweli was featured on the 9th Wonder and Buckshot track "Hold It Down".

Talib is currently recording a collaborative album titled Party Robot with R&B singer Res under the group alias Idle Warship. They have released one song, "Industry Diary" from the upcoming project.

Discography

Main article: Talib Kweli discography

• Quality (2002)
• The Beautiful Struggle (2004)
• Right About Now: The Official Sucka Free Mix CD (2005)
• Eardrum (2007)

External links

• Official site
• Official blog
• Talib Kweli at MySpace
• Talib Kweli at YouTube

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Talib Kweli. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Less Than Jake Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.