talib kweli eardrum (blacksmith/warner broTHERS)
price $41
Kweli’s never put up serious numbers–2004’s The Beautiful Struggle was his most successful release, peaking at number 14 on the Billboard Top 200–but he’s always been propped by the die-hard coffee-shop and backpacker crowds. So griping isn’t a good look for him: checking people for mouthing off about his sound’s evolution clashes with his anti-establishment, pro-freedom-of–expression proletariat image. We want to hear Kweli bitch about the man, not about fans. And the truth is that anyone who makes a living off his art isn’t making it just for himself.
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Perhaps his fans’ complaints finally got to him-, or maybe he visited a life coach, because we saw hints of a revived Kweli in January with the release of Liberation, an album originally available as a free download from the Blacksmith label Web site and now out on CD. Made in collaboration with Stones Throw producer Madlib, it ranks as one of hip-hop’s best albums of the year so far–even if it’s still no Black Star or Train.
Kweli has managed to hang on to most of his core fans, who still buy his records and support his constant touring–he’ll be in Chicago August 26 for the Rock the Bells tour (see the Treatment in Section 3)–and given recent appearances in a TV ad for NCAA basketball and the video game Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, the mainstream seems ready to embrace him too. Regardless of his fans, it’s clear Kweli will keep moving forward musically and leave no challenge unanswered.
