Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli (born Talib Kweli Greene, 1975) is a rapper from Brooklyn, New York. He is one of the most prominent rappers in underground hip-hop, and is critically acclaimed frequently, despite not being commercially successful. His name is Arabic, meaning 'the seeker' or 'student of truth and knowledge'. His parents were both college professors: his mother an English professor, his father a sociology professor. As a youth, he was drawn to Afrocentric rappers, such as De La Soul(LA LE LU) and other members of the Native Tongues Posse and soon began recording with producer Hi-Tek and rapper Mos Def who he met at central park, and later attended New York University with. With Mos Def (together the pair were known as Black Star), Kweli achieved some mainstream success with Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998). Also noted are Kweli and Mos' central input on Rawkus Records' compilation album Soundbombing (1997). Soundbombing also include collaborations between Kweli and DJ Hi Tek as Reflection Eternal. Together they released Train of Thought in 2000, which sold better than most alternative hip hop albums at the time. He has since released a critically acclaimed solo debut, Qua...
2010-04-01 K'NAAN, Wale with special guest John Forte
K'NAAN, Wale with special guest John Forte Growing up in the rough streets of Mogadishu, Somalia, rapper K'Naan grew up to become a highly political underground rapper. He has performed in tours with prominent hip hop artists such as Mos Def and Talib Kweli.
2010-04-04 Wale and K'NAAN w/ John Forté
Born in Mogadishu, Somalia, just as the civil unrest that rocked the country was beginning, rapper K'NAAN spent the early years of his life trying to avoid death and listening to the hip-hop records sent to him from America by his father, who had left Somalia earlier. When K'NAAN (whose name means "traveler" in Somali) was 13, he, his mother, and his two siblings were able to leave their homeland and join relatives in Harlem, where they stayed briefly before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where the...
