Talib Kweli

Brooklyn's Talib Kweli is revered for his insightful, intelligent lyrics and advanced technical skills on the mike. The earnest MC became one of the most critically successful rappers of his time, which dawned in the late '90s when he formed  with  and rapped alongside  as part of the group . Their widely acclaimed 1998 album debut, Black Star, helped make one of the premier underground rap outposts of the late '90s. 's debut full-length, 2000's Train of Thought, preceded a prolific solo career, which included the gold-certified Quality (2002) and Eardrum (2007), which hit number two on the Billboard 200. Kweli released several albums and mixtapes through his  company, then formed the independent  in the early 2010s, releasing lower profile but acclaimed efforts like 2017's Radio Silence. He remained busy into the 2020s, with two podcasts as well as a collaboration with  called , and a 2023 joint effort with  titled Liberation 2.

Born in Brooklyn as the eldest of two sons of college professors, Kweli's first name, Talib, is an Arabic name meaning "the seeker or student," while his last name is Ghanaian and means "of truth or knowledge." He began developing his literary gift in elementary school, where he'd write short stories and poems. It wasn't until years later in high school that he turned to hip-hop as an outlet for his self-expression. In high school, he met a young , who became better known as  (and is now known as ). This fateful meeting further drew Kweli toward hip-hop, and another fateful meeting further convinced him that he had a bright future as an MC. During a 1994 trip to Cincinnati, he met , aka , who at the time was part of a local rap group called . Kweli impressed  during their time together, and the DJ invited the MC to guest on several tracks for 's 1997 album Doom. Shortly afterward, Kweli and  formed a partnership as and recorded "Fortified Live," which the fledgling  label released on its first Soundbombing compilation.

Kweli reconnected with  after returning to New York, and the 1998 Black Star album resulted, with several tracks produced by . And with it came critical acclaim that turned these guys into media darlings overnight. They might not have sold millions of albums, but Kweli, , and  most certainly impressed a great many people, among them critics, fellow rap artists, and a lot of folks who enjoyed a good old-fashioned hip-hop album with an emphasis on beats, rhymes, and life. In 1999  released his debut solo album, Black on Both Sides, which featured a Kweli appearance, and pursued an acting career. Kweli and  returned to their partnership and released Train of Thought in 2000. It spawned a pair of minor hits in "Move Somethin'" and "The Blast."

When Kweli returned with his Quality album in 2002, things had changed a bit. For one, he was truly solo. It featured him collaborating with a host of different artists, among them a young and promising yet still largely unknown producer named . "Get By" was the fruit of Kweli's collaboration with , and it became the rapper's first Hot 100-charting hit, aided quite a bit by a non-album remix featuring . The remix got a lot of radio play, but still, Quality didn't put up  numbers and Kweli remained a critical favorite, a reputation cemented even more in late 2003 when  gave him a high-profile shoutout in "Moment of Clarity": "If skills sold, truth be told/I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli."

All of this set the stage very well for The Beautiful Struggle, which arrived in fall 2004. The expectations for the album were high because of the  rhyme, and also because a great many hip-hop disciples felt Kweli was long overdue for a commercial breakthrough. The set was undoubtedly his most commercial effort to date, featuring a few radio-ready hook singers like  and , not to mention a roster of hitmaking producers like , , and . Kweli subsequently split from his distributor, , and lowered his profile for a bit, releasing a stopgap mixtape, Right About Now (2005), via .

In anticipation of his next solo album, Kweli collaborated with producer  on Liberation, which was initially made available as a free download on New Year's Eve of 2006 on the  website. Finally, in August 2007, Kweli issued the full-length album Eardrum on his own label, , via a partnership with Debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 and selling about 60,000 copies in its first week, Eardrum was Kweli's highest-charting album to date and featured beats from not only  but also , , , and , among others. 

In 2010, the album Revolutions Per Minute reunited Talib and under their  moniker, then the next year, the solo Gutter Rainbows was the first album to be released by Talib's  imprint. He collaborated with Philadelphia's  as the duo , releasing the album Habits of the Heart. Kweli's 2013 release Prisoner of Conscious balanced radio-friendly numbers with more abstract tracks and featured , , and . The 2014 effort Gravitas followed the same path, this time with , , and writer  among its guests. A year later, Kweli released the solo effort Fuck the Money and the collaboration Indie 500. Another collaborative effort -- The Seven with  -- was issued in April 2017. Seven months later, Kweli released Radio Silence, an album on which he was joined by the likes of , , , and . 

Kweli started a weekly podcast called The People's Party in 2019, then reunited with past associates  (formerly ) and  on a podcast named The Midnight Miracle in 2020. Kweli formed  with 's , and they released their self-titled debut in 2021, with guests including  and . The long-awaited  reunion album, No Fear of Time, was produced by  and released through podcasting network Luminary in 2022. The same network also issued Liberation 2, a sequel to Kweli's earlier collaboration with , in 2023. The album featured a diverse guest list including , , , and Detroit poet . A physical edition followed on . ~ Jason Birchmeier & Paul Simpson, Rovi

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