Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greeneis an American hip hop recording artist, entrepreneur, and social activist. He is the son of professional educators. In 2011, Kweli founded Javotti Media, which is self-defined as "a platform for independent thinkers and doers". Kweli earned recognition early on through his work with fellow Brooklyn artist, Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's career continued with solo success including collaborations with famed producers Kanye West, Just Blaze, and Pharrell...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth3 October 1975
CountryUnited States of America
I feel like people mislead themselves when they tell themselves they're into me because of the lyrics. From my vantage point, people aren't into me because of the content, because of the lyrics. Because there's a million of rappers who have great content.
Everybody could write, deejay, rap. Everybody could do it all.
I listened to a mind joint, and I wanted to do my own version of it, and what you hear on my mixtape is my take on what the whole CD sounds like.
I think its man's nature to go to war and fight.
I was always rhyming and doing it for the love before I found out I was gonna have children and when I found out, doing it for the love wasn't enough.
I will never do a record without some sense of responsibility.
Fortunately, artists can live off their works, if you're creative at how you do it. If you just depend on the videos and the radio, you're at a loss.
I think people are into me because of my music choices and my musicality.
I like the fact that I can rep New York, but my style does not - I'm not trapped in a New York thing. I can do art songs with other artists and it's seamless.
As far as my New York influence, one thing I'm proud of in my career is, I rep Brooklyn, New York all day. But people don't look at my music as New York music. People consider my music underground music.
You see somebody rapping and you're like, "Nah, my cousin can do that." You're spoiled by the experience. Overseas, it's still something that people can appreciate.
Hopefully, we learn to appreciate hip-hop here so that it doesn't go the way of jazz.
Jazz is the greatest American art form and our greatest export. We don't pay attention to the youth of jazz, don't stoke the fires creatively for the youth coming up. I feel like jazz musicians became too much of purists - with Donald Byrd doing funk jazz in the '70s.
I see that happening with hip hop purists now. Where you have an artist like a Kendrick [Lamar] or a Drake, who are really trying different things emotionally, different things musically, and on a mainstream level. And you have underground hip hop fans dissing it, for the simple fact that it's mainstream - not because what they're doing is whack, or what they're doing is not sincere.