Talib Kweli

Yasiin Bey And Talib Kweli Announce Their Long-Awaited Black Star Reunion Release Date

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It was well over two decades ago that Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (then known as Mos Def) declared, “Black Star keep shinin’.” However, in the intervening years, it seemed that Black Star had long since burned out. The two respected rappers would offer glimmers of hope, but for most, their reunion seemed like a lost cause. After announcing they were working on a new album in 2018, it almost felt like they were stringing rap fans along — I mean, even Kweli was shocked by Bey’s insistence that he was coming out of retirement.

But wonder of wonders, it looks like the thing actually exists — and even better, it has a release date. Today, Black Star announced that their comeback album, No Fear of Time, will drop on May 3 via the Luminary podcast network, which also hosts their show The Midnight Miracle with Dave Chappelle and the Uproxx-produced People’s Party With Talib Kweli. The album is entirely produced by the duo’s longtime collaborator Madlib, who dropped his album Sound Ancestors in 2021 after teaming up with Freddie Gibbs in 2019 for Bandana.

In a press release, Kweli explained how the album came together:

“About 3-4 years ago I was visiting Yasiin in Europe and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be. Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times. There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he’s like ‘Play that Madlib tape again.’ I’m playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that’s how we did the first song.

This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It’s all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows.”

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Black Star

Niko Is And Talib Kweli Trade Dense Lyrical Verses In This Eerie Posse Cut

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Niko Is has linked up with Talib Kweli, MidaZ the Beast, A.L. Punchline, and Wordsworth for a lyrical, hard-hitting, classic hip-hop posse cut titled “Live From The Blue Note.” Take “classic” with a grain of salt though, while this harkens back to a golden age of hip-hop group cuts, “Live” is anything but traditional. The video is shot in a moody black and white and sees the MCs trading dense lyrical verses over an eerie minor-key piano motif which acts as the song’s sole rhythm track.

The sparse and eerie track’s minimal arrangement allows the natural musicality of the words and the rhythms of each MC’s flow to really shine — every member of the crew excels at filling gaps and nailing their punchlines. Kweli, in particular, has a fiery verse that boils with a steady intensity (including lines that dance around his recent public conflict with Ye).

“See the grifters dressing like they’re post-apocalyptic fly fishers, you get the picture when I frame and capture, I’m the famous rapper posing as a backpacker…” and “your mental state seems to be in a defensive place, your fans must’ve got the Corona and lost their sense of taste.”

Or you know, maybe he’s talking about some other bridge-burning headline-making rapper who talked publicly about posing as a backpacker.

Despite the song’s brooding vibe and length (it’s past the six-minute mark, with no drums in sight!) it never drags for a second. There’s a steady heat boiling on high as this collective of mic masters push one another and trade layered bars. It never feels out of step with the rhythm of current or classic hip-hop (there’s definitely some Mobb Deep energy in play).

Watch the video for “Live From The Blue Note,” above, the song is set to appear on Niko Is’ upcoming LP with Juni Ali, Young Viejos.

Talib Kweli Teased A ‘New Black Star Album’ And Praised ‘My Brother’ Yasiin Bey

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The collaboration between Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, the artist formerly known as Mos Def, has been one of the most formative albums in hip-hop history. Referred to colloquially as “Black Star,” the supergroup’s sole album together, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, came out over twenty years ago now in 1998. And though both artists have released plenty of music as solo artists since, the demand and hope for a second Black Star record has never abated. Since then, Talib has become a part of Uproxx by launching his People’s Party show.

Today, seemingly out of nowhere, Talib all but confirmed that the follow-up record actually exists, and that it will actually come out. “The new Black Star album was recorded in hotel rooms and dressing rooms across the globe. I love how my brother @yasiinbey pushes me musically. #blackstarforever follow @blackstarkeepshining today…” he wrote, captioning a photo of both men in what is, presumably, one of the many hotel rooms where the pair worked on their new music.

If this news is timely, as in, the album or some new music teasing the project is coming soon, then 2022 just got a whole lot better. Hey, if A Tribe Called Quest can make a comeback album that’s just as good as their old material, why can’t Black Star? Stay tuned.

De La Soul Have Finally Gained Control Of Their Masters, According To Talib Kweli

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Legendary hip-hop trio De La Soul — Posdnuos, Trugoy and Maseo — have been locked in a battle with Tommy Boy Music for years to regain control of their masters. Now, according to Talib Kweli, it’s mission accomplished for The Plugs.

“After years of being taken advantage by the recording industry in the worst possible ways, De La Soul now owns all the rights to their masters and is in full control of the amazing music they have created,” Kweli wrote in an Instagram post over the weekend, writing that Maseo had confirmed the news. “Let’s salute Plugs 1, 2 and 3 for sticking to their guns and showing us that we can all beat the system if we come together as a community. Let’s hear it for black ownership of black art! Congratulations fellas.”

The news may not come as a huge surprise, since just two months ago, Reservoir Media acquired the Tommy Boy for close to $100 million. They also gained ownership of Tommy Boy’s catalog, which includes six De La Soul albums: 3 Feet High And Rising (1989), De La Soul Is Dead (1991), and Buhloone Mindstate (1993), Stakes Is High (1996), Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (2000), and AOI: Bionix (2001). A spokesperson for Reservoir also confirmed that the new label ownership would mean that De La Soul’s catalog would at last come to streaming platforms. “We have already reached out to De La Soul and will work together to the bring the catalog and the music back to the fans,” a Reservoir rep told Variety.

As Uproxx’s Aaron Williams pointed out recently, the only two De La albums currently available to stream are 2004’s The Grind Date, released under Sanctuary Records, and their crowdfunded 2016 album And The Anonymous Nobody.

Dave Chappelle Is Launching His First-Ever Podcast, Along With Talib Kweli And Yasiin Bey

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“Last summer, Yellow Springs [Ohio] was what Hollywood is supposed to be,” says Talib Kweli about the much mythologized “Chappelle Summer Camp” of 2020, which has now given birth to Dave Chappelle’s first podcast. “What we realized is that Hollywood and all that stuff is fake. The real dopeness is where the people are. If someone like Chappelle says, ‘Well, I’m in Yellow Springs.’ Then that’s where the people are going to be.”

The show, co-hosted by Kweli and Yasiin Bey and called The Midnight Miracle, will air on the subscription podcast network Luminary, will reveal the inner workings of Chappelle’s covid rapid tested events (along with the even more legendary after-parties), held in Ohio through the summer and deep into the fall. The first episodes are set to drop “in the coming weeks” and will feature wide-ranging conversations as well as sketches, archival clips, and impersonations from Chappelle, along with a roster of his incredibly famous friends.

“The constant isn’t fame,” Kweli says, “it’s contributions to the culture. Chappelle, one of his many talents, is curating great rooms, so what people will hear on the podcast is essentially what they would hear if they were in the room with us. It’s very organic, very free-flowing, it’s non-linear… we just happen to associate ourselves with greatness.”

“The Midnight Miracle” was recorded in a retrofitted mechanic’s garage turned clubhouse, and the trio has already banked over 100 hours of content recorded with a jaw-dropping list of guests from Common and Tiffany Haddish to Questlove and Chris Rock (plus a soundtrack that includes Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonius Monk, and D’Angelo).

As for where the seed of the show first blossomed, Kweli credits his longtime Black Star partner in rhyme, Yasiin Bey. The trio’s friendship has endured since the Chappelle’s Show days.

“We speak often and the last few years we’ve spoken more, as we’ve gotten older,” Kweli tells us. “It was actually Yasiin’s idea to do this type of podcast, when he and Dave first heard people talking about my show, The People’s Party. [People’s Party is produced by Uproxx] Yasiin said to Dave, ‘you should be doing a podcast, too’ and Dave said ‘well the only way I’m doing it is if I do it with ya’ll,’ It was just that simple.”

“Making a podcast isn’t the obvious next move for me, but it’s the right one,” Chappelle said in a press release announcing the show. “The Midnight Miracle gives you a look into how me and my friends process the world around us, and I think it will change the way listeners think of what a podcast can be.”

Look for The Midnight Miracle to drop on Luminary in the weeks to come.

Hip-Hop Albums Turning 10 in 2021

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The soundtrack of 2011. Continue reading…