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Talib Kweli

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Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli Greene (born October 3, 1975 ),[1] better known as Talib Kweli, is an American MC from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker"; his middle name in Swahili means "truth". Kweli first gained recognition through Black Star, a collaboration with fellow MC Mos Def.

Biography

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Kweli grew up in a highly educated household in Park Slope. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York[2] and his father an administrator at Adelphi University. His younger brother, Jamal Greene, is a professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, and former clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse whom he had met in high school. Talib Kweli was a student at Cheshire Academy, a boarding school in Connecticut. He was also a student at Brooklyn Technical High School, before being academically dismissed. He later studied experimental theater at New York University (NYU).[3]

Early career (1995-2001)

Kweli made his underground debut in 1995, 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."

In 2001, Kweli with Black Star partner Mos Def contributed to the Red Hot + Indigo compilation album created by the Red Hot Organization in tribute to Duke Ellington, that raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. Black Star collaborated with fellow artists John Patton and Ron Carter to record "Money Jungle." In 2002, Kweli contributed to the critically acclaimed Red Hot + Riot, a compilation CD created by the Red Hot Organization in tribute to the music and work of Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. He collaborated with fellow hip-hop artists Dead Prez, Jorge Ben, and Bilal to remake the famous song by Fela Kuti, "Shuffering and Shmiling," for the CD.[4]

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", and appeared in a few Dilated Peoples songs, including a live remix later featured on the video game NBA Street Vol. 2.

Along with Common and Questlove, he contributed to Zap Mama's Ancestry in Progress (2004) with "Yelling Away."

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 on the track "Get 'Em High". West has produced some of Kweli's songs, including his biggest commercial hit "Get By". West also includes a nod to Kweli on the song "Breathe in, Breathe Out" from his album "The College Dropout". The lyrics read: "Golly more of this bullshit ice rap/ I got to 'pologize to Mos and Kweli", an acknowledgement of Kweli's meaningful message spread while part of Blackstar. Kweli can be seen in a commercial for the NCAA's Big Ten Conference, rapping about the league's basketball teams.[5] 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.[6] 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, which debuted at no.14 in the billboard top 100. 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.[7]

Recent career (2007-2010)

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."[8] In 2007, the album was made available for purchase.

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!!!.[8]

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 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.[2]

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

Talib was featured at the fifth installment of Hot 97 radio personality Peter Rosenberg's acclaimed live interview series "Noisemakers with Peter Rosenberg," joining a distinguished list of previous guests including DJ Premier, ?uestlove of The Roots, Q-Tip and Raekwon, on October 21, 2009.[9]

Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek released a second Reflection Eternal album titled Revolutions Per Minute on May 18, 2010.

Talib Kweli has recently stated that he will be releasing a studio album, called Gutter Rainbows in January of 2011. kweli has said himself that this CD is the early beginnings/demos for "Prisoner Of Conscious" an album he still plans on releasing in the future. Not much is known about the album aside from a list of confirmed producers and that it will feature the song "Cold Rain". Gutter Rainbows was released on Jan 25, 2011.

Ongoing and Future projects

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."[citation needed]

Talib recorded an album entitled Party Robot with R&B singer Res and musician Graph Nobel under the group alias Idle Warship. The album was released as a free download on the website for Kweli's label Blacksmith with 2 different cover art options in late 2009. There were videos shot for two of the songs from the album "Bedroom Lights" and "Black Snake Moan".

In February 2009 it was announced that Talib would be featured in the graphic novel-turned-animated series Blokhedz on Missiong.com, voicing the lead part of the character Blak.[10][11]

Personal life

Talib Kweli married DJ Eque on May 9, 2009 in Bel Air, California. [12]

Talib has a daughter Diani Eshe and a son Amani Fela.

Talib Kweli is a spokesperson and mentor for P'Tones Records a non-profit after school music program that's mission is "to create constructive opportunities for urban youth through no-cost music programs"[13]

Discography

Main articles: Talib Kweli discography and List of Talib Kweli songs

Solo

With Mos Def as Black Star

With Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal

With Madlib

References

  1. ^ a b Rott, Ivan. "Talib Kweli". Retrieved 2008-12-27.
  2. ^ Tsukayama, Hayley (July 10, 2009) "Hip-hop with honors". Talib has a brother called Gary Lawrence who is from the Cayman Islands and currently works for Servo in Birstall Star Tribune
  3. ^ Talib Kweli Biography - Discography, Music, Lyrics, Album, CD, Career, Famous Works, and Awards
  4. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Shuffering-Shmiling-Agreement-Fela-Kuti/dp/B003X43FWU
  5. ^ "Power Rankings: Michigan St. Spartans (11-2)". Sports Illustrated. January 6, 2006.
  6. ^ "Review:Graffiti game fresh and fun". CNN. February 24, 2006.
  7. ^ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCX54oh0p2o Ben Kweller's One Minute Pop Song: Episode 7
  8. ^ a b Big Dog Status by Thomas Golianopoulos. XXL Magazine. January 2008. Page 82.
  9. ^ http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=60333
  10. ^ http://blokhedz.tv/?p=588
  11. ^ http://vimeo.com/5991734
  12. ^ [1]
  13. ^ www.ptonesrecords.com
  14. ^ http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.12784/title.talib-kweli-to-release-gutter-rainbows-on-january-25-2011-digitally
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