Word: kweli
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...rapper Common neo-soul, acid jazz or Native Tongues? When you can’t categorize a sound, you can’t limit its possibilities—something Common apparently understands and capitalizes upon in Electric Circus. Last year’s amazing albums from The Roots, Talib Kweli and Cody Chesnutt proved the place of electronica and the electric guitar in the music of this new hip-hop movement. But Common’s new album delivers the exclamation point on an already strong declaration. In “New Wave,” Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab...
...impossible to “judge the worst of the present by the best of the past.” Like most people, however, he is not optimistic that many hip-hop fans will ever fully embrace innovative artists such as Mos Def, Lauryn Hill and Talib Kweli. Neither is he optimistic that there will be many more artists like them...
That's a cry that surprisingly few black rap acts in America have taken up, with some notable exceptions. The masterly, literate self-titled debut of Black Star (Mos Def and Talib Kweli) is a virtual symphony of African internationalism. The group's name alludes to Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa nationalism, and the lyrics paint a red, green and black mural stretching from Coltrane to Du Bois to Ishmael Reed to Derrick Bell. Brown Skin Lady is a love song both to a woman and to Africa itself ("I know women on the continent got it/Nigeria and Ghana...
Unfortunately for them, they didn't exactly beat anyone to the idea. The past two years have brought an explosion of acts that came real and kept it that way. The Roots, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, Common and Jurassic 5 have all blown up lately, not to mention fellow L.A. wildmen the Black Eyed Peas...
...more personal, political and spiritual than the bulk of what passes for Top-40 rap today. These are young acts but experienced: Q-Tip, 29, is a former member of A Tribe Called Quest and is releasing his first solo effort. Mos Def, 25, has performed with Talib Kweli as the duo Black Star. And the Roots has five albums under its belt; its members have now honed their skills and are ready for prime time...