2008 Woodie Awards
Record Review - Talib Kweli: Ear Drum
John C. Schlotfelt - The Daily Iowan
Issue date: 7/24/07 Section: Arts
Talib Kweli
Ear Drum
**** out of *****
As the third-generation of conscious rappers - Lupe Fiasco and Jean Grae - starts making noise, the mainstream-challenging MCs are in danger of falling into the same repetitive patterns as their Top-40 adversaries. When every platinum-selling rap record has a gun-clapper, one-night-stand narrative, booty-shakin' club song, and violent beef track, every conscious album has the anti-gun blast, the spirituality-of-love tune, the booty-shakin' club song (some things never change), and a track decrying the unnecessary beefs between lame cookie-cutter rappers.
Brooklyn's Talib Kweli, one of the foremost members of the secondgeneration, has transcended these genre exercises and provided a guidebook for the up-and-comers. Prophetic, poetic, epic, fierce and unrelenting - Ear Drum stands as a clear manifesto for what rap should be (uplifting) and should do (move the audience physically and mentally).
Kweli lays out his credo on the Hi-Tek-produced "More or Less." The MC spits a list of inverse relationships and levies a searing insult on Ms. Spears: "More building, less destroyin' / More jobs, less unemployment … More history, less mystery / More Beyoncé, less Brit-a-ney."
To complete his vision, Kweli enlists torch singer Norah Jones to croon the hook on the appropriately sensual "Soon the New Day." While he draws from outside the typical talent pool, he also reaches back and recruits DJ Jazzy Jeff - Fresh Prince Kweli? - and his nimble fingers for an old-school touch on the fire-and-brimstone prognostication of "NY Weather Report."
Ear Drum doesn't boast anything like the dizzying heights of Kanye-produced "Get By" on 2002's Quality. Kweli, though, has so thoroughly scrutinized his rhymes that Ear Drum's worst tracks are only a little elbow grease away from its best.
Stand outs: "More or Less," "Listen!!!," "Soon the New Day," "Electrify"
E-mail DI music critic John C. Schlotfelt at:
john-schlotfelt@uiowa.edu
Ear Drum
**** out of *****
As the third-generation of conscious rappers - Lupe Fiasco and Jean Grae - starts making noise, the mainstream-challenging MCs are in danger of falling into the same repetitive patterns as their Top-40 adversaries. When every platinum-selling rap record has a gun-clapper, one-night-stand narrative, booty-shakin' club song, and violent beef track, every conscious album has the anti-gun blast, the spirituality-of-love tune, the booty-shakin' club song (some things never change), and a track decrying the unnecessary beefs between lame cookie-cutter rappers.
Brooklyn's Talib Kweli, one of the foremost members of the secondgeneration, has transcended these genre exercises and provided a guidebook for the up-and-comers. Prophetic, poetic, epic, fierce and unrelenting - Ear Drum stands as a clear manifesto for what rap should be (uplifting) and should do (move the audience physically and mentally).
Kweli lays out his credo on the Hi-Tek-produced "More or Less." The MC spits a list of inverse relationships and levies a searing insult on Ms. Spears: "More building, less destroyin' / More jobs, less unemployment … More history, less mystery / More Beyoncé, less Brit-a-ney."
To complete his vision, Kweli enlists torch singer Norah Jones to croon the hook on the appropriately sensual "Soon the New Day." While he draws from outside the typical talent pool, he also reaches back and recruits DJ Jazzy Jeff - Fresh Prince Kweli? - and his nimble fingers for an old-school touch on the fire-and-brimstone prognostication of "NY Weather Report."
Ear Drum doesn't boast anything like the dizzying heights of Kanye-produced "Get By" on 2002's Quality. Kweli, though, has so thoroughly scrutinized his rhymes that Ear Drum's worst tracks are only a little elbow grease away from its best.
Stand outs: "More or Less," "Listen!!!," "Soon the New Day," "Electrify"
E-mail DI music critic John C. Schlotfelt at:
john-schlotfelt@uiowa.edu
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