BLACK STAR
Talib Kweli
Mos Def
MOS DEF
In the '60s, a man named Marcus Garvey planned to take Jamaicans and black Americans back to Africa on a cruiseship
dubbed the Black Star Line. Today, three men named Talib Kweli, Mos Def and Hi-Tek plan to take hip-hop from igno-
rance-infested glamsta rap back to conscious and thought-provoking lyricism with a rap group called Black Star. Climb
on board with Talib Kweli as he gives definition to the intentions and redefinition to the misconceptions of his crew.
T54: What is your Can you talk about the
strength as an MC? return of positivity to the
TK: Conveying information. Himelight in hip-hop?
Trying to put information in I like to deal more with con-
a way that people can relate sciousness than positivity,
to it. I might talk about because we don't live posi-
things that you maybe never tively all the time. But we do
heard of but say them in a have to always live con-
way that you still under- sciously. And when I say
stand. I'm in a constant bat-
nean
tle to
to make myself relevant,
to make people relate to me,
but I don't let it define me as
an artist.
So you're not concerned
about hitting every audi-
ence out there?
Not at all. I'm concerned
about hitting people who lis-
ten. There are some artists
who are so obscure and
into their craft that they
don't even reach people
who listen. I listen carefully
to everything that comes
out, or I try to, and there
are some artists who are so
obscure that I just can't get
with their shit. Not because I
don't listen or because I'm
on some commercial shit; it's
just like, "Yo, it's too much." I
don't want to be one of those
artists, but there is definitely
integrity in what I do and I
will never sacrifice my values
for anything.
You try to be an MC's MC.
Definitely. Because my
favorite MCs are that way.
I'm not trying to be the
MC's MC that's too obscure
for regular people. I want to
be able to rock my grand-
mother's barbecue and I
I want to be able to rock the
high school-really master.
the ceremony no matter
where I am. I try to make
music that reflects that. I
don't limit it to kids who lis-
ten to hip-hop. I get a lot of
kids who tell me that their
moms like the Black Star
record, and that's a big
compliment. We're trying to
bring hip-hop back into the
home and trying to make it
universal. I think you can
have cats doing the gang-
ster shit, cats doing the
player shit, and cats doing
what we're doing, and we
can all be respected, at least
by the people in hip-hop.
"conscious," I
I don't mean
that you always have to be a
goody two-shoes, but you
have to be conscious of what
you're doing. And there's def-
initely a return of that. Even
Jay-Z says in his song,
"Money, Cash, Hoes," "I
know people are gonna have
a problem with this hook, but
I don't give a fuck." That's
conscious. He's fully aware of
what he's doing, the music
he's making, who he's reach-
ing. When people become
conscious there are certain
things you can't ignore. And
that leads to people thinking
about what they're doing.
and when they're thinking
about what they're doing,
they're gonna start thinking
of more creative ways to do
it, and of other things they
could say.
It seems like people got
sick of the conscious
rhymes and just wanted
to party. Do you think
that's just a cycle that
hip-hop goes through?
I don't think so. There are
people who were wearing
beads and medallions in '91
and now they have gold and
Versace on. And those are
the people who are just in it
for the money and they're
just doing whatever's popu-
lar at the time. That's really
how the majority of people
are going to be. The people
who listened to Poor
Righteous Teachers and
groups like that in the late
'80s and early '90s, the peo-
ple who grew up on that
stuff, still keep it inside of
them. We have to be careful
not to say that there's a new
thing goin' on, because the
people who were doing it
kept doing it. Mos Def and I
kept doing it. I still dress the
same as I did in 1991; I
haven't paid attention to the
hip-hop trends. It's important
to me that artists who never
left that aesthetic get props.
In "Children's Story,"
Mos Def is getting mad at
people jacking beats, but
at the same time he's
jacking the whole rhyme
scheme from Slick Rick.
What makes Black Star
any better?
I'm glad you asked that.
People have really been look-
ing for things to criticize us
for. And that's the first thing
people pick on. The first thing
Mos tried to do was get the
rhyme scheme, because that's
the part of the song he
respected. And Slick Rick is
his favorite, so that was a trib-
ute to Slick Rick for him. The
song says there isn't anything
necessarily wrong with jack
ing beats, but people start
doing it over and over and
over again, till it becomes
90% of their input and all the
creativity leaves. He goes on
to talk about what people say
over the beats they're jacking,
He says, "Why you selling lies
to our wives and children?"
It's not just about jacking
beats; it's not about Puffy
Trackmasters. It's about kids
who get involved in some
thing because it's a trend and
take it overboard and sell lies
to people about their lifestyle
just to make money, which I
don't think anyone can accuse
us of. People are looking for
shit to call us hypocrites
about. Niggas are out there
talking about selling crack,
talking about raping women,
and people are giving them
props, but as soon as we come
out on some conscious shit,
people are looking for every
little thing to pick us apart for
and call us hypocrites. We
have a lot more responsibility.
No one is gonna get on anoth-
er artist who rhymes about
selling crack.
Obviously they don't
have any responsibility;
otherwise they wouldn't
be saying that stuff in the
first place.
Exactly. We have to pay
more attention to what we
say and do, and I accept that.
so
I wouldn't be the type of
artist that I am if I didn't
accept that. But it pisses me
off that all the so-called.
purists who claim they want
something different, who
claim they want somebody
to just get in the game and
do it better, are looking for
ways to bring them down as
soon as someone does it.
Why do you need Black
Star, Reflection Eternal,
Mos Def by himself, you
by
yourself...why
many different groups?
Why not? We're artists and
we express ourselves in dif-
ferent ways. We'll never
limit ourselves. We're doing
the same thing as jazz musi-
cians except we're doing it
in a way that we can get
paid for it. The jazz musi-
cians would be on each
other's records but get paid
for studio work and they'd
have different groups, like
this would be the John
Coltrane group and this
would be the Miles group. It
was never limiting. In hip-
hop people get caught up in
the names of the groups,
and who's down with what,
and the cliques and shit. If I
could only record as Black
Star for the rest of my life,
I'd be upset. I'm a
a solo
artist by nature, meaning I
don't like to work with peo-
ple because I don't like
them to invade my creative
space, but I understand the
power of joining minds
together. I've been fucking
with Reflection Eternal for
a long time. That's foun-
dation; that's who I am. But
Mos Def and I were doing a
lot of shows together, and
our energy was just perfect.
So we were like, "Well, let's
do a project. Why not?"
White artists and white
groups do that shit all the
time and it's never a prob-
lem. But a lot of times in this
fast food and bubble gum
culture, people don't even
have time to develop them-
selves artistically, much less
reach out and do something
with other groups.
-True 54
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