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Talib Kweli

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Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli (born Talib Kweli Greene in Brooklyn, New York City on October 3, 1975) is an American MC from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the best-known rappers in alternative hip hop, and is frequently critically acclaimed, despite not having seen significant commercial success. His name in Arabic means "student", his last name in Swahili means "true". 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.[1][2] He also studied experimental theater at New York University (NYU).

Kweli's mother was 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 soon began recording with rapper Mos Def, who he had met in high school, and producer Hi-Tek.

History

Talib Kweli started his rap career in a group called Mood with DJ Hi-Tek as the group's producer, Main Flow and Dante, back in Cincinnati. They had problems dealing with record labels and they never got major distribution and promotion for their only effort, an album called Doom.

Rise to popularity

Along with Mos Def (the pair are known as Black Star), Kweli achieved some mainstream success with Black Star (1998) on Rawkus Records. Mos Def went on to a successful solo career, as well as becoming an actor. Black Star and its individual members made numerous appearances on the Chappelle's Show, a popular show on Comedy Central hosted by comedian Dave Chappelle. Chappelle himself hosted a Block Party featuring Kweli, Kanye West, Dead Prez, The Roots, The Fugees, Erykah Badu and other Hip Hop and Soul icons. Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek released the album Reflection Eternal in 2000, also on Rawkus.

Kweli has since released a critically acclaimed solo debut, Quality, in 2002, which received some mainstream attention thanks to the Kanye West-produced single "Get By." Quality also had tracks produced by successful producers Just Blaze and DJ Quik. In 2004, he released his second solo album and final Rawkus release, The Beautiful Struggle. The album features commercial production, and Kweli's lyrics retain their powerful socio-political content. Also in 2004, Talib Kweli, along with Bob Moore's Amazing Mongrels supported Beastie Boys on thier "Challah At Your Boy World Tour". In the same busy year Kweli participated in a photo shoot by the renown fashion/celebrity photographer Ben Fink Shaprio. He also appeared in a few Dilated peoples songs, one, live on stage remix is on the video game NBA street vol. 2. The other song was kindness for weakness off of their 20/20 album.

Kweli has created his own record label, Blacksmith Records and has recently signed acclaimed female rapper Jean Grae and the group Strong Arm Steady(Kweli also appeared on the MF DOOM/Danger Mouse collaboration The Mouse and the Mask, on the song "Old School"). He left Geffen Records and has signed with Warner Bros. Records(to distribute for Blacksmith).

He has since broken through slightly more towards the mainstream, thanks in large part to an appearance on MTV's Wild 'N Out, and several performances on the comedy show Chappelle's Show with long-time collaborator Mos Def; these performances were a product of Dave Chappelle's friendship with Kweli. Chappelle also participated in a number of skits on Kweli's albums "Train of Thought" and "Quality"- impersonating several people including Nelson Mandela. He also had a guest spot on friend 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.[3] 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.[4]

Current activities

Kweli has two children: an older son, Amani Fela, and a younger daughter, Diyani Eshe.

Kweli's younger brother, Jamal Greene, graduated from Yale Law School and is currently serving as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens.

Kweli has also supported the Black August Benefit Concert since its inception, and performs at the show consistently every year.

Talib Kweli's latest solo album will be released July 24, 2007. In the meantime, he has created a global gathering place for all his fans on Second Life which will feature live concert streams as well as exclusives from Ear Drum.

The first single off of Ear Drum, "Listen!!!", was featured in the EA Sports video game NBA Live '07.

Controversy

Ben Kweller's In Other Words was sampled for the track, Ms. Hill off of the EP, Right About Now, without the knowledge or permission of ATO Records or Kweller. On One Minute Pop Song Episode 7 about In Other Words, Ben Kweller noted, "Talib Kweli uses the same song on his new album but he didn't get permission to use it, and so that was a little f***** up." [5]

Trivia

Kweli was a part-owner of Nkiru, Brooklyn’s oldest Black bookstore. He studied experimental theater at NYU. He attended the Cheshire Academy, a private high school in Cheshire Connecticut.

Discography

Main article: Talib Kweli discography

Black Star (Talib Kweli & Mos Def)

Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek)

Liberation (with Madlib)

Solo albums

Mixtapes

Bootlegs

Movies

Video Games

See also

References

  1. ^ "Acclaimed Hip-Hop Artist Talib Kweli Named Black History Month Keynote Speaker at Holy Cross". Holy Cross College. February 1, 2005.
  2. ^ "HPD - Homebuyers - New York City Neighborhoods - Prospect heights, Brooklyn". The City of New York: Department of Housing Preservation and Development.
  3. ^ "Power Rankings: Michigan St. Spartans (11-2)". Sports Illustrated. January 6, 2006.
  4. ^ "Review:Graffiti game fresh and fun". CNN. February 24, 2006.
  5. ^ "One Minute Pop Song Episode 7". Youtube.com / benkweller.com. September 11, 2006.
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