Talib Kweli: A Rapper For The Masses

The Brooklyn-Bred MC Says He's Not A Political Rapper, He's A Reality Rapper

(CBS)  This story was written and reported by The Showbuzz's Caitlin Johnson.


One could call Talib Kweli the Bob Dylan of hip hop — he's an unrelenting conscience, unwilling to drop the subject of social justice and self-appreciation even though the music industry is often clamoring for sex, drugs and violence.

Kweli, the son of New York University professors, grew up in Brooklyn but attended the prestigious Cheshire Academy in Connecticut. His songs are not only sophisticated musically, but also lyrically replete with complex word play and allusions to Beatles songs and Shakespearean plays. As a conscious or positive artist like Common and his old friend and Black Star partner Mos Def, Kweli's message is almost always elevated.

His most recent projects buck the convoluted music industry. He released a free album called "Liberation" online and broke from his former label, Geffen, to form his own called Blacksmith, on which he will release his sixth album, "Ear Drum." He is also appearing in a documentary that examines manhood in hip hop called "Beyond Beats and Rhymes," which will air Feb. 20 on PBS.

"Geffen wasn't doing any work to market or promote me, anything you saw me do from any videos to press to TV to shows was all done on my own — my own money. I was essentially running my own label already," Kweli told The ShowBuzz.

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Podcast: Hear Talib Kweli talk about starting a new movement in hip hop

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Unlike some other notable hip-hop figures, whose videos are full of scantily clad women gyrating, expensive champagne and money tossed around cavalierly, Kweli, a father of two, says his responsibilities as a human being, not as an artist, compel him to rap about issues that resonate with real people — but don't call him a political rapper.

"I like the term reality rapper — that was the same term gangsta rappers were using when everyone was focused on them," Kweli, 31, said in his thick Brooklyn accent. "I like that term because the rap I make is a lot more realistic than the stuff you hear on the radio. I talk about real life situations that people go through. Political rap — I stay away from that as a name because it's not so much politics that is my focus, politics is something that I don't ignore, but that's not really my focus. The focus is self-esteem, self-love, self-worth and community building. The politics is secondary to that."

For example, his song "Black Girl Pain" off the "Beautiful Struggle" album tells black women not to be ashamed of themselves. "Get By" off the "Quality" album details the underbelly of American society where some people resort to crimes and drugs for survival.

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Podcast: Hear Talib Kweli talk about art and politics

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Kweli — a workaholic who says he tours 250 days a year — is all about speaking to "the community," and when he says community, he most certainly means the oppressed, impoverished African-Americans. He has a voice that carries weight and influence and says it's his responsibility, not so much as an artist, but as a human being, to commit himself to the truth, even if it means that perhaps he won't attain the commercial success of some of his biggest fans and admirers, artists like Jay-Z and 50 Cent. But he is OK with that.