It's more important to adopt the look of rebellion without the accompanying mentality
Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper
by Mychal Smith
No artist wants to be boxed in. They don’t want to feel the pressure from their fans to constantly produce the same type of material. They desire the freedom to experiment, step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves and their audience to look at the art and themselves differently. I respect this outlook. I do.
But then Talib Kweli does a song with Gucci Mane and I’m forced to reevaluate everything I believe.
Granted, I should’ve seen this coming. After Kweli essentially co-signed Slim Thug’s idiotic comments regarding black women and his assertion that people don’t like Drake simply because he’s successful, there seems to be no one in hip-hop that Kweli won’t defend/make excuses for. When he hops on a remix to Rick Ross’ B.M.F. and proudly shouts the name of Larry Hoover, don’t act surprised.
And he has every right to do so. The issue, as I see it, is that he is trying to do everything he can distant himself from the base that built him. Everyone’s favorite conscious rapper doesn’t want to be conscious anymore.
To be “conscious” in hip-hop hasn’t meant a lot in a while, basically serving as a catch-all for artists who fell outside of the mainstream/gangsta/money-cash-hoes mentality that rappers constantly catch flack for. When the North Carolina-based group Little Brother first appeared, they were tagged with the conscious label, though their music hardly embodied that aesthetic. But the late '90s and early '00s did see a rise in popularity of rappers with socially responsible/conscious lyrics, such as Mos Def, dead prez, Common, and of course, Kweli. After the massive success that was Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, record companies and fans alike were tuning in to listen to more than just the Jay-Zs and DMXs of the time. It was as close to balanced state of hip-hop as had been seen since the late 80s/early 90s.
Read the Full Essay @ theloop21.com
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Talib Responds:
*Editor's Note: On July 15, TheLoop21.com contributor Mychal Smith wrote 'Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper.' Mr. Kweli read the piece and contacted us via twitter asking us to post his response. Here' s what he had to say:
I have been working on my new album, Prisoner Of Conscious since the summer began. It is a title I have had floating in my head for quite some time, but it is even more relevant right now. Hip Hop is like bipartisan politics these days. Everyone chooses sides and argues for the sake of the argument, not to actually achieve any clarity.
I am a man and an artist of the people. When I say that, I do not just mean people I agree with, people who understand me or people I can relate to. I mean the people in the truest sense of the term. This philosophy, although professed by many intellectuals, is lost on them. They would rather judge the masses as a foolish body, greatly in need of their intellectual musings. Any public figure who attracts a crowd of people should be examined, and if they are smart about their business they are to be respected. Respect transcends personal taste, you can and often should respect your enemy.
Now I don't know Mychal Smith, but what I do know is he is a blogger that follows me on Twitter, and I guess my decision to record with Gucci Mane bothered him enough to blog about it, declaring my move a part of the demise of the conscious rapper.
I offer a different take. I say people like Mychal Smith are every bit as caught up in the flashing lights as the "ignorant" masses they like to judge. Instead of celebrating it, they get joy from speaking against it. They truly believe not liking Gucci Mane makes them intellectually superior to say, some chic down south. They pay so much attention to what they perceive to be negative, based on a limited world view, that they miss the positive, even when it's right in their face.
Read the Full Essay @ theloop21.com
Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper
by Mychal Smith
No artist wants to be boxed in. They don’t want to feel the pressure from their fans to constantly produce the same type of material. They desire the freedom to experiment, step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves and their audience to look at the art and themselves differently. I respect this outlook. I do.
But then Talib Kweli does a song with Gucci Mane and I’m forced to reevaluate everything I believe.
Granted, I should’ve seen this coming. After Kweli essentially co-signed Slim Thug’s idiotic comments regarding black women and his assertion that people don’t like Drake simply because he’s successful, there seems to be no one in hip-hop that Kweli won’t defend/make excuses for. When he hops on a remix to Rick Ross’ B.M.F. and proudly shouts the name of Larry Hoover, don’t act surprised.
And he has every right to do so. The issue, as I see it, is that he is trying to do everything he can distant himself from the base that built him. Everyone’s favorite conscious rapper doesn’t want to be conscious anymore.
To be “conscious” in hip-hop hasn’t meant a lot in a while, basically serving as a catch-all for artists who fell outside of the mainstream/gangsta/money-cash-hoes mentality that rappers constantly catch flack for. When the North Carolina-based group Little Brother first appeared, they were tagged with the conscious label, though their music hardly embodied that aesthetic. But the late '90s and early '00s did see a rise in popularity of rappers with socially responsible/conscious lyrics, such as Mos Def, dead prez, Common, and of course, Kweli. After the massive success that was Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, record companies and fans alike were tuning in to listen to more than just the Jay-Zs and DMXs of the time. It was as close to balanced state of hip-hop as had been seen since the late 80s/early 90s.
Read the Full Essay @ theloop21.com
***
Talib Responds:
*Editor's Note: On July 15, TheLoop21.com contributor Mychal Smith wrote 'Talib Kweli and the demise of the conscious rapper.' Mr. Kweli read the piece and contacted us via twitter asking us to post his response. Here' s what he had to say:
I have been working on my new album, Prisoner Of Conscious since the summer began. It is a title I have had floating in my head for quite some time, but it is even more relevant right now. Hip Hop is like bipartisan politics these days. Everyone chooses sides and argues for the sake of the argument, not to actually achieve any clarity.
I am a man and an artist of the people. When I say that, I do not just mean people I agree with, people who understand me or people I can relate to. I mean the people in the truest sense of the term. This philosophy, although professed by many intellectuals, is lost on them. They would rather judge the masses as a foolish body, greatly in need of their intellectual musings. Any public figure who attracts a crowd of people should be examined, and if they are smart about their business they are to be respected. Respect transcends personal taste, you can and often should respect your enemy.
Now I don't know Mychal Smith, but what I do know is he is a blogger that follows me on Twitter, and I guess my decision to record with Gucci Mane bothered him enough to blog about it, declaring my move a part of the demise of the conscious rapper.
I offer a different take. I say people like Mychal Smith are every bit as caught up in the flashing lights as the "ignorant" masses they like to judge. Instead of celebrating it, they get joy from speaking against it. They truly believe not liking Gucci Mane makes them intellectually superior to say, some chic down south. They pay so much attention to what they perceive to be negative, based on a limited world view, that they miss the positive, even when it's right in their face.
Read the Full Essay @ theloop21.com
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