Talib Kweli (born Talib Kweli Greene in Brooklyn, New York City on October 3, 1975) is an American MC from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the best-known rappers in alternative hip hop, and is frequently critically acclaimed, despite not having seen significant commercial success. His name in Arabic means "student", his last name in Swahili means "true". Talib and fellow rapper artist Mos Def purchased Nkiru, which is Brooklyn's oldest black-owned bookstore, and converted it into the Nkiru Center for Education and Culture. He also studied experimental theater at New York University (NYU).
Kweli's mother was an English professor and his father a sociology professor. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul and other members of the Native Tongues Posse, and soon began recording with rapper Mos Def, who he had met in high school, and producer Hi-Tek.
Talib Kweli started his rap career in a group called Mood with DJ Hi-Tek as the group's producer, Main Flow and Dante, back in Cincinnati. They had problems dealing with record labels and they never got major distribution and promotion for their only album, Doom.
Along with Mos Def (the pair are known as Black Star), Kweli achieved some mainstream success with Black Star (1998) on Rawkus Records. Mos Def went on to a successful solo career. Black Star and its individual members made numerous appearances on Chappelle's Show, a popular show on Comedy Central hosted by comedian Dave Chappelle. Chappelle himself hosted a Block Party featuring Kweli, Kanye West, Dead Prez, The Roots, The Fugees, Erykah Badu and other hip-hop and soul icons. Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek released the album Reflection Eternal in 2000, also on Rawkus.
Kweli has since released a critically acclaimed solo debut, Quality, in 2002, which received some mainstream attention thanks to the Kanye West-produced single "Get By." Quality also had tracks produced by successful producers Just Blaze and DJ Quik. In 2004, he released his second solo album and final Rawkus release, The Beautiful Struggle. The album features commercial production, and Kweli's lyrics retain their socio-political content. Also in 2004, Talib Kweli, along with Bob Moore's Amazing Mongrels, supported the Beastie Boys on their "Challah At Your Boy World Tour". In the same year, Kweli participated in a photo shoot by the renown fashion/celebrity photographer Ben Fink Shaprio. He also appeared in a few Dilated Peoples songs, including a live remix later featured on the video game NBA Street Vol. 2.
Kweli has created his own record label, Blacksmith Records and has recently signed acclaimed rapper Jean Grae and the group Strong Arm Steady (Kweli also appeared on the MF DOOM/Danger Mouse collaboration The Mouse and the Mask, on the song "Old School"). He left Geffen Records and has signed with Warner Bros. Records(to distribute for Blacksmith).
He has since broken through slightly more towards the mainstream, thanks in large part to an appearance on MTV's Wild 'N Out, and several performances on Chappelle's Show with long-time collaborator Mos Def; these performances were a product of host Chappelle's friendship with Kweli. Chappelle also participated in a number of skits on Kweli's albums "Train of Thought" and "Quality"- impersonating several people including Nelson Mandela. He also had a guest spot on West's widely successful debut album The College Dropout on the track "Get 'Em High". West has produced some of Kweli's songs, including his biggest commercial hit "Get By". Kweli can be seen in a commercial for the NCAA's Big Ten Conference, rapping about the league's basketball teams. He also provided the voice of the protagonist in the graffiti-themed video game Marc EckÅ?'s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, released in 2006.
Kweli has two children: an older son, Amani Fela, and a younger daughter, Diyani Eshe.
Kweli's younger brother, Jamal Greene, graduated from Yale Law School and is currently serving as a law clerk on the U.S. Supreme Court for Justice John Paul Stevens.
Kweli has also supported the Black August Benefit Concert since its inception, and performs at the show consistently every year.
Talib Kweli's latest solo album will be released July 24, 2007. In the meantime, he has created a global gathering place for all his fans on Second Life which will feature live concert streams as well as exclusives from Ear Drum.
The first single off of Ear Drum, "Listen!!!", was featured in the EA Sports video game NBA Live '07.
Kweli sampled Ben Kweller's "In Other Words" for the track, "Ms. Hill" off of the EP, Right About Now, without permission from ATO Records or Kweller. On One Minute Pop Song Episode 7 about In Other Words, Kweller noted, "Talib Kweli uses the same song on his new album but he didn't get permission to use it, and so that was a little fucked up."
Kweli was a part-owner of Nkiru, Brooklyn’s oldest black bookstore.
He studied experimental theater at NYU.
He attended the Cheshire Academy, a private high school in Cheshire, Connecticut.
Main article: Talib Kweli discography
