Drums for your Ear and Lyrics for your Mind

Eardrum. Forget your ears. This is the album you need to get your hands on today, press play and forget what I’m about to say to listen yourself to the delicious display. From the start, from the heart, the true art form resides from song to song. If Nas said that Hip Hop is Dead, Talib is definitely one of the few who can claim that it is still alive and kicking, and more importantly doing something about it. After the beautiful Beautiful Struggle (2004), Kweli continues to fight his one man battle. Prepare the cavalry.

Let’s look at the tracklist, although this is the type of album that is better than the sum of its parts.

1. Everything Man (5/5)
2. My Weather Report (5/5)
3. Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us) (5/5)
4. Say Something f/ Jean Grae (4/5)
5. Country Cousins f/ UGK & Raheem DeVaughn (2/5)
6. Holy Moly (4/5)
7. Eat to Live (4/5)
8. In the Mood f/ Kanye West & Roy Ayers (4/5)
9. Soon the New Day f/ Norah Jones (5/5)
10. Give 'Em Hell f/ Coi Mattison & Lyfe Jennings (5/5)
11. More or Less f/ Dion (5/5)
12. Stay Around (5/5)
13. Hot Thing – f/ will.i.am (3/5)
14. Space Fruit (Interlude) (NR)
15. Perfect Beat f/ KRS-One (4/5)
16. Oh my Stars f/ Musiq Soulchild (3/5)
17. Listen!!! (4/5)
18. Go with Us [*] f/ Strong Arm Steady (3/5)
19. Hostile Gospel, Pt. 2 (Deliver Me) [*] f/ Sizzla (4/5)
20. Nature [*] f/ Justin Timberlake (5/5)
*Bonus Tracks

With all the talent as guest appearance and on the production, Kweli’s fans may be afraid that this is some sell-out water-down stuff. Don’t worry. If you are a Talib fan, you know there is no watered down Kweli. Talib is not always great, but he is always himself. He embodies real hip hop. A true artist with a vision and seeking wisdom more than record sales, although I am sure this guest list may bump his commercial appeal and general awareness.

As for the music, like the introductory track warns, everyone won’t be happy, but I dare say that most sensible hip hop fans will enjoy most of this well-constructed album. In fact, there is so much in here in terms of production & lyrics that different highlights will intrigue different listeners, and some time the same listener at different listen, but few will deny the overall quality/kwelity of this album. Everything Man is a great intro track that could have done probably even better as a more full-fledged song, but propels the album with Madlib producing the best beat of the twenty track line-up and Kweli claiming that he can’t be everything to everyone with lyrics that are both visceral and cerebral. The concept made me think of a cross between Kanye’s Everything I Am and Whitney’s I’m Every Woman. Again, the only complaint is that it should have been a six minutes song.

My Weather Report is more contemplative with slower tempo and occasional soft scratches, but the Kwelity of lyrics is still top-notch and is filled with metaphors that will melt in your ear, not in your hand. Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us) has a soft choir as the chorus’ background, but the track is enhanced by violins, piano and percussions. As in much of the album, beyond the production, Kweli’s lyrics--here (and often) a sensible societal observation--are really the core of the song. But Just-Blaze’s ballad is very impressive on its own.

Say Something dares haters and critics to say something and features the first of many guest appearances. Jean Grae, like most that will follow, is not to the level of quality of Kweli’s rhymes, but she is good and is at least makes up in intensity in this abrasive challenge song. Country Cousins may be the low point of the album with easy lyrics about “I’m from New York, but have country cousins” and reminiscing about the good ol’ days of Hip Hop over an equally easy beat and southern feel.

Holy Moly & Eat to Live get back to the meat with good beats and lyrics. The former is short and perky while the later has a nice piano loop and talks about the necessity for food contrasted with the state of food health and obesity/starvation world distribution of food.

In the Mood features a comic Kanye West who makes fun of plastic surgery. Ye also produces the track that is a good enough listen. Soon the New Day features Norah Jones and musically brings you back to the 1970s with a sensuous Norah as Talib brings incredible insight to a typical one night stand experience. Satisfying thus far, the music and rhymes only get better. Give Em’ Hell is without a doubt the most important song of the album and has a nicely layered jazzy production to give the message of the hypocrisy of religion, misinformation and conditioned faith. Coi Mattison & Lyfe Jennings’ singing is measured, but powerful and adds depth to the song. Yet, again, the meat is in the words. Look at this first verse as an example of complex, insightful lyricism:
Every Sunday dressing up catching gossip at its worst
Couldn't see the difference in the Baptist and the Catholic Church
Caught up in the rapture of the first chapter and second verse
If we all God's children then what's the word of the reverend worth
Taught early that faith is blind like justice when you facing time
If we all made in God's image then that means his face is mine
Wait or it's that blasphemy it's logical it has to be
If I don't look like my father then the way I live is bastardly
Naturally that's confusion to a young'n trying to follow Christ
Taught that if you don't know Jesus then you lead a hollow life
Never question the fact that Jesus was Jewish not a Christian
Or that Christianity was law according to politicians
Who was King James?
And why did he think it was so vital
to remove chapters and make his own version of the Bible
They say Hell is underground and Heaven is in the sky
And they say that's where you go when you die but how they know

More or Less is also nicely produced by Kweli’s long-time accolade Hi-Tek and follows with a bright-eyed look at modern day life with witty lyrics like:
Less liquor stores
Less churches that be looking like corner stores
More rap songs that stress purpose
With less misogyny, less curses
Let's put more depth in our verses 'til they left on the surface
While we stomp through the underground

Then Pete Rocks take the reign with a real soulful cut and more of Kweli’s best lyricism in Stay Around: probably the overall album’s best song, although it is extremely hard to pick one over the others like our own children that we all love "equally" and for different reasons. Hot Thing is the requisite ode to a woman song featuring and produced by will.i.am. It is light-hearted but passes very well.

Perfect Beat is almost that with a great beat and a healthy Hip Hop legend in KRS-One who spits a convincing chorus and second verse although, he could have used this ill beat a bit better on the first go. However, in this case, the young must teach "The Teacher" and Kweli kills the track with a great flow and passive aggressive battle rap lyrical tactics.

Oh my Stars is Kweli’s serenade to his children and works at some levels, although it is nowhere near classics of the genre like Xzibit’s The Foundation, Will Smith’s Just the Two of Us or even Eminem’s darker Mockingbird. It is rather short and we are left with the last official song: Listen!!! More good lyrics with a catchy beat and chorus. Listen.

The bonus tracks are a welcome addition with Go with Us keeping it going, while Hostile Gospel, Pt. 2 (Deliver Me) is a better treat with another hard look at the human condition in his socio-cultural reality. To top off this remarkable journey, Nature ends it with a Justin Timberlake feature that is unexpectedly uplifting and powerful with a chorus that brings it back to the roots, the essentials: “I'm just trying to get back, to what really matters.” Justin sings his heart out and Talib raps it like this:
The people ain't got shoes for they feet, or food to eat
So they hurtin' but what's for certain you can get you some heat
And over beef you laid to rest like you was gettin' some sleep
Where the little kids get ammunition you can't get no nutrition
Or any type of suitable living condition listen
They shoot you over that paper, its just survivalist human nature
to put you out of your misery like euthanasia
Don't let them fool you we ain't different than the youth in Asia
Africa and Europe, it's a small world we truly neighbors


Did you say Justin Timberlake?
Yes.
Norah Jones is one thing, but Justin Timberlake. How can this be underground?
Well. Underground is in the message, not the beat, the people or the record sales. Yet the message--this beautiful, peaceful, positive message-- is unfortunately still "underground." So go buy this album and make underground mainstream and better the quality of the music we listen to... and perhaps the lives we live in too.



For more Hip Hop Reviews by the same author:
Top 10 Rappers of All-Time: A Case Study (Part 1: 10-6)
Top 10 Rappers of All-Time: A Case Study (Part 2: 5-1)
Top 20 Rap Albums of All Time: A Closer Look