Talib Kweli Makes it Plain - INFORUM - A Commonwealth Club Presentation

March 20, 2015. Talib Kweli - INFORUM - Commonwealth Club.  “All good art takes cues from the community. It responds to our struggles,” said rapper Talib Kweli during his conversation, Race, Justice and Hip Hop, with Judge LaDoris H. Cordell on Friday night at the Commonwealth’s Inforum event held at the historic Castro Theatre. And to an audience of hip-hop fans, Commonwealth members and social activists spanning different age groups, races, religions and sexualities, Kweli explained that hip-hop is no different. He likened good hip-hop to that of negro spirituals, exploring how both genres are the lamentation of the black community’s discontent and pain due to systematic oppression in a white supremacist society. Kweli stressed that a good hip-hop artist’s voice should amplify, impact and and belong to the community.

This portion of the conversation reminded me of an MTV interview with Diddy several years back where he drew similar comparisons:

“I always relate hip-hop to our old Negro spirituals. They were sung in the cotton fields to help us get by, to help us not kill ourselves by going crazy under the word oppression in the world. The music, the soulfulness, the spiritual-ness expressed in song helped us get through another day. “That’s the same impact hip-hop has had on this generation. Hip-hop has helped us make it through our life in the inner cities.”- Diddy

Kweli, considered by many as a “conscious rapper” (although he is reluctant to be boxed in to the category), grew up in a Black Nationalist household with parents who were active in the Civil Rights era and has been outspoken on racial justice issues. But he knows that all Twitter talk and conscious, poetic verses can be cheap. Kweli is one of very few celebrities who visited Ferguson and marched alongside protesters in the name of Michael Brown and all the unarmed black men who came before and after him.

During his talk, Kweli noted that these injustices have deep roots, dating back to slavery when white supremacy was invented to justify the slave trade and it has since evolved to Jim Crow and then onto to the prison industrial complex and the unjustified shootings of unarmed black men.

When discussing his Ferguson trip, he explained, “We don’t stand up. We don’t protest because we hate cops or white people. We do it because we love ourselves.”

While Kweli shouted out rappers like Kendrick Lamar, whose recent album addresses collective pain while instilling black self-love, he admitted there are many rappers whose verses are damaging, misogynistic, homophobic and perpetuate negative stereotypes in the black community. However, he held a “take the good with the bad” attitude on conscious vs. “flashy” hip-hop music that plays into the capitalist mentality.  “It’s convenient to love hip-hop when it’s beautiful but both types go hand in hand,” said Kweli.  

Written by: Rahel Marsie-Hazen