Playlist Breakdown: Bill's Kweli Mix (c. 2004-05)

Talib Kweli is my favorite rapper -- I think he is unlikely to be replaced, no matter how many young talented people come along. My brother first introduced me to serious hip-hop around the turn of the century, c. 1999-2000 when I started college. The main center of his initial introduction was Soundbombing Vol. 2. This album will always be my introduction and touchstone of hip-hop. I think already here the most significant voices are Talib Kweli and Mos Def, who will become Black Star. For hip-hop fans, I admit my listening range stopped in the early 2000s, so my thoughts are confined to a quite definite era, from perhaps 1998 to about 2004-5.

That's when I made the Kweli Mix I intend to write about here. Between Mos and Kweli, I have to vote for Kweli as the best rapper of his generation (in my limited listening), and that includes Kanye West. So onto Kweli. Some of you reading may be fans of Reflection Eternal. If I have to vote, that's my #1 rap album of all time.

It's strange, but I want to begin my appreciation of Talib Kweli's lyrics with a line of his about September 11, 2001. When I taught a course at UIC in the spring of 2022 on "Rhetoric and Discourse," we were discussing the early 2000s political rhetoric scene. Standing in front of the classroom, I tried to convey to them-- who were probably children, or not even yet born-- what it felt like to be in college as an adult when that event happened.

As a college teacher in the 2020s, I found myself inadvertently thinking of Kweli's lyric from "The Proud" on his 2002 album Quality:

"We've been at war for years, but it's much more clear." -- How could I say that to a class of college students? What was I even thinking? I guess something in my preparation up until that point had understood that there is a critique of the United States of America. On some level, as frightening as it is to contemplate, I was not surprised. At least that's how I remember thinking about it at the time. I can't elaborate more in this post on that topic, but the reader may find a clue in that I thought that out of all cultural commentaries on 9/11 whatsoever, in any medium, the best to me was Talib Kweli in that particular song from 2002, "The Proud."

For me, Kweli is much higher and broader than that, and I write this blog post as an enduring tribute to my favorite rapper, in my favorite time of his music, as I made an old "mix CD" as we used to do in the early 00s.

Track 1: Black Girl Pain, The Beautiful Struggle (2004), track 11

I have to defend this track as the best possible way to introduce Talib Kweli's music. The main musical motif goes back to "Mama Said There'll Be Days Like This" -- the old Mo-Town song. I can't in these posts go into all the lyrics, but it is in Kweli + Mos Def's tradition of "Brown Skin Lady" from Black Star. It's deeper than that, relating to women not just as love interest, but as family.

Track 2: Where Do We Go, Quality (2002), track 12

Part of my choice in picking tracks has to do with the musical transition. Perhaps there is a sense of isolation that I like, minor key for sure. "It's like pain is our only inspiration," there it is. The hook. You know there is a deep poetics of pain, Harold Bloom would praise Nietzsche as a theorist of such. I don't say that about the sublime Talib Kweli--you have to remember, the resolution of the song is the resolution of the problem; that's what makes a poet a mystic.

Track 3: Definition (w/ Mos Def), Black Star (1998), track 3

This is the inaugural and beautiful testament to the permanent hip-hop duo, Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Their voices and styles are perhaps most perfectly blended in this song than any other they did, and, of course, they were always collaborating on their later albums together.

Track 4: Chaos (w/ Bahamadia), Soundbombing, Vol. 2 (1999), track 13

Even though Black Star recorded before this album dropped, my first ever hearing Kweli was on a song like this. As always, his diction and rhythm are perfect. As I state above, my favorite voices on Soundbombing vol. 2, my introduction to hip-hop, are Mos Def and Kweli. Here Kweli matches his voice with his singing partner.

Track 5: Talk to You (Lil' Darlin') (w/ Bilal), Quality (2002), track 8

Probably the smoothest track Kweli ever did, at least in my listening lifetime through 2004 (ha!). Riffs on an Eddie Kendricks tune, look it up. He was one of the Temptations. Perfect old smooth guitar riffs from the old school, and I would challenge hip-hop style critics -- what do you think about Kweli's flow here? How does he "jazz" rather than ... beat? It's a beautiful track, culminated by the great Eddie Kendricks.

Track 6: We Got the Beat, The Beautiful Struggle, (2004), track 8

The baddest 80s tune you will ever hear from Kweli, straight up disco meets synth meets electronic punk disco. Ha, Kweli keeps up of course, and he says, "Information is the newest religion." Hm ... where did I get those ideas so long ago? Think of the fun of 1980s hiphop and the regular rhythms, a conscious tribute to that remarkable era.

Track 7: Around My Way, The Beautiful Struggle (2004), track 7

Using a beat from The Police ("Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"), Talib Kweli manages to add a gospel vocal track in the background. It is a kind of gospel track, an epic journey through life, that we all need. The quest motif. But, you know, it's connected to home. One of the greatest epics, The Odyssey, is a journey home.

Track 8: Good Mourning, Reflection Eternal (2000), track 19

Starting with the beautiful Marvin Gaye whisper, it ends ... what I already told you is my favorite rap album of all time. Why don't you listen to this track, the final one on Kweli + Hi-Tek's miraculous collaboration, listen to that one first. "What have you done with your life"? Who said poetry needs to be depressing? My dear reader, this track itself might be your own introduction to the genius of Talib Kweli, which has hardly been entered upon.

Track 9: Memories Live, Reflection Eternal (2000), track 7

Now we go into the depths of Kweli's genius, deeper than Black Star, deeper than the later albums Quality and The Beautiful Struggle. Hi-Tek rivals only Mos Def as a prime collaborator with Kweli, and they are different in kind. There is no pop hook here, and I have found no more pure hip-hop in my life of listening to music. It just keeps going. At the center of what continues to be my justified favorite rap album. I think this is the track that ends with a sonic image of the beach, like, ...

Track 10: Can I, Eddie Kendricks (1971)

Yes my friends, the hip-hop is over. But we have two absolutely beautiful and indispensable tunes from well before our time -- without which, the foregoing tunes would have not been possible. Listen to the voice of Eddie Kendricks, of the Temptations. The song, as Kweli or someone else discerned, is perfect.

Track 11: Mama Said (There'll Be Days Like This), The Shirelles (1963)

Any good art refers to past art in some way -- as I think Harold Bloom said about John Ashbery, the soul is always captive more to art than to the body. That is a Post-Oscar Wildean observation.

Thank you for listening. I hope you found the time to listen through all those tracks in that order. Put it on Spotify.

Now my playlist is going to the beginning of Quality (2002), when I was at college and Dave Chappelle introduces the album. Listen to all the albums above all the way through. I dedicate the above to my brother Dean, who got me onto the idea of writing blogs about current or old playlists.