Last Night's Mixtape

I’ve been seeing a lot of clips of Talib Kweli on Noisemakers floating around the hip hop blogs for the past couple of days.  I figured why not post as much of the show as I could find on youtube for you guys to enjoy.  It is pretty interesting, after all.  Noismakers is part interview, part concert.  Hosted by Hot 97 radio host Peter Rosenberg, featuring DJ J. Period, the show has hosted the likes of  Raekwon, DJ Premier, and Q-Tip.  Think of it as Inside the Actor’s Studio for hip hop.

Here’s Talib Kweli talking about what it was like to work with Dilla:

In my opinion, Talib’s music has been sorta hit and miss since the Rawkus golden era.  The Black Star Album remains untouchable.  His Soundbombing tracks were always ones to look for, and the first Reflection Eternal album was also a classic.  But things got a little rocky after he parted ways with Hi-Tek and did the Quality album.  A couple of albums later, there’s still nothing that compares to that old Kweli flow that first got me hooked.

All things considered, he’s still the man.  The influence that his music has had on hip hop is no doubt tangible.  Just like A Tribe Called Quest needed De La Soul, among others, to help them create a movement and get on the map, artists like Common probably wouldn’t have made it as big as they are today without the collective effort brought forth from artists like Kweli.  The bottom line is that his rhymes are smart and they reflect an element of hip hop that is no longer as rare in the mainstream, albeit still kinda rare, as it was before he stepped on the scene.  For that I thank you, Talib Kweli.

So, yeah, Kweli is smart.  He’s also funny and a good story teller.  Here’s Kweli talkin about why Detroit has the best rappers, weed and being white girls’ favorite rapper:

Kweli on Kanye habitually acting like a jackass:

On the Rawkus days, working with Mos, Kanye, Dilla, having Jay-Z drop his hame in a verse, avoiding being pigeon-holed as a political rapper, family and more: