Talib Kweli - Eardrum Review
Posted by Phil Watts, Jr on 08.29.2007
The struggle is over…
A lot of us remember the Rawkus movement and the first SOUNDBOMBIN’ mixtape a decade ago. Yeah, we had to deal with Blackmoon’s DJ Evil D playing the annoying Mixtape DJ role (“EVIL D IS ON THE MIX--COME ON KICK IT!!!” Yo, D…please don‘t quit your day-job), but this mixtape introduced many of us to artists like Company Flow, Black Attack, Sir Menelik, Shabaam Sahdeeq, Mick Zoot, and of course, Mos Def & Talib Kweli…a.k.a. Black Star. Mos gave us such memorable solo joints like “If You Can ’Huh’ (You Can Hear It)” and “Universal Magnetic”, then you had Reflection Eternal (Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek) with “2000 Seasons” and “Fortified Live” with Mos Def and Da Bush Babies’ Mr. Man.
One day, Mos & Kweli joined forces and gave us the seminal debut album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are BLACK STAR, an album that was considered a bonafied classic and would set the stage for both of their solo careers. Things started off fine with Mos Def’s BLACK ON BOTH SIDES and Kweli &DJ Hi-Tek’s TRAIN OF THOUGHT. However, it was during this period where things got shaky, especially for Kweli, as many have constantly considered him the lesser of the two and that he’s nothing without Mos Def. On top of being in Mos Def’s shadow, he had to struggle with making a consistently decent album. Aside from TRAIN OF THOUGHT, most of his albums have ranged from weak to mediocre, with only a few spurts of dopeness found in them (like the Kanye-produced “Get By”).
Then came all the drama in the OkayPlayer boards when some fool leaked his BEAUTIFUL STRUGGLE album (his worst effort by far), which led to Kweli’s official Jump-The-Couch moment. It’s one thing to be pissed off at some stupid fuck leaking your album before it comes out, as any artist would rightfully be; it’s another to go on anti-Internet diatribes (basically alienating about 90% of his fan-base) making comments like, “The main ones hatin’ is on the Internet! The people that like the album, they’re not on the Internet--THEY’RE TOO BUSY LISTENING TO THE ALBUM!!!”--all while trying to convince people that “THE STREETS FEEL ME” when the numbers say otherwise. Needless to say, he didn’t make too many friends with that move. At that point, many of us have written him off, seeing him as a hopeless case.
However, as the year 2006 closed, a funny thing happened…
It was at that point when Mos Def--that same Mos Def that overshadowed Kweli--puts out TRUE MAGIC, one of the most dreadful albums ever made, and on so many levels. A few days later (New Years Day, in fact), Kweli--the same Kweli that went ballistic when STRUGGLE was leaked--released the Madlib-produced LIBERATION album as a FREE INTERNET DOWNLOAD (he would eventually released it in stores a few months later). It was his best album in years…and as good as it was, it served as nothing more than an appetizer to his latest record: EARDRUM!
Enough beating around the bush, I’m just going to get right to it: This is Kweli’s best effort since TRAIN OF THOUGHT. With Kweli running his own ship called Blacksmith Records, he’s pulled out all the stops to make sure this shit turns out thorough. He’s enlisted the aid of beat-pros like Pete Rock, Kanye, Just Blaze, and Madlib to keep the sound tight, and even the King Of Inconsistency, will.I.am, brings something to the table. Meanwhile, Kweli does Kweli. It’s been 10 years, and he’s not planning on changing up anytime soon.
Madlib returns with some more smoothed out material this time, like the Philly-International-style “Everything Man” which starts the album off nicely. If your eardrums start stinging, that means you’re on “Hostile Gospel part 1”, as Just Blaze makes those drums extra LOUD. I miss hearing drums like that. Kweli then gets reminiscent with Bun B and the fresh-outta-jail Pimp C (with some Philip Bailey-style hook singing from Raheem DeVaughn) in the cool-out joint, “Country Cousins”. Pete Rock comes through in a clutch form him with his work on both the painfully SHORT “Holy Moly” and “Stay Around”, where you could tell that he’s having a little fun addressing the critics:
‘YO KWELI--YOU SHOULD RAP ABOUT THIS--YOU SHOULD RAP ABOUT THAT!’
Any more suggestions? You in the back---yeah you:
‘YOU SHOULD RAP ON BEAT
YOU SHOULD RAP MORE FOR THE STREET
AND NEVER EVER GET YOUR MACK ON PLEASE!’
How ‘bout you?:
‘I LIKE IT WHEN YOU’RE MELODIC
IT’S CUZ YOU CAPTURE HYPNOTIC PORTRAITS
THAT SEEM TO MAKE THE AVERAGE EXOTIC!’
‘KWELI--YOU NICE--I KNOW YOU GETTING’ SOME LOVE
BUT CAN’T YOU SPIT LIKE A THUG?
HOW YOU GONNA BLOW--YOU MAKE A HIT FOR THE CLUBS!’
Word--’I DON’T LIKE YOUR VOICE!
I DON’T LIKE YOUR CHOICE OF BEATS…
Then you have the incredible “In The Mood”, featuring the Ubiquitous one, Roy Ayers, on the vibes, while Kanye brings his A-Game this time out (if only he brought shit like this to Common’s FINDING FOREVER) and makes a crack about silicone booties (girls have no idea how silly they look, standing around in random issues of KING looking like they got balloons in their ass.) Kweli reunites with Hi-Tek for “More or Less”, and while it’s no “Fortified Live”, it does fit the social commentary very well. Will.I.am picks out some Johnny Guitar Watson for the obligatory girly joint, “Hot Thing”, because hey--even conscious brothers gotta chase skins sometimes, right? And of course, all this pales in comparison to the lead-in single, “LISTEN!!!”, a highly energetic song that's right up there with his early Rawkus material. Kwame gets much props for his production in this one. (By the way, his 1989 debut, KWAME THE BOY GENIUS…find this shit. Now. Go through every pawn shop and used CD bin to find this album. You’ll be glad you did.)
However, this album is not perfect, and with 20 tracks total, Kweli could afford to make some cuts. First off, while the idea of Kweli and Jean Grae on the same track isn’t a bad one, having them both on a tawdry attempt at a club track (“Say Something”) is. Hopefully, this track will give them some spins in the club to push the numbers up (and make Time-Warner happy ), because it would be a worthless attempt if it doesn’t. “Give ’Em Hell” has Kweli basically going to same route that KRS went as far as religion goes (loves God, but hates religion), but on the whole, it sounds like a filler track on his last few albums. Speaking of KRS, they both try to flex their lyrical muscles on “Perfect Beat”, which wouldn’t be a bad thing…if not for the fact that the beat is far from perfect. “Eat To Live” starts off as a brilliant tear-jerker, as Kweli tells a touching story of a young boy growing up in the streets hungry:
My little man go to bed so hungry
Get up, go to school with his nose runny, come home with his nose bloody
His sister laughin, he like "What's so funny~?"
'Til she drowned out by the sounds of hunger pains in his tummy
Nuttin in the freezer, nuttin in the fridge
Couple of 40 ounces but nuttin for the kids
Little man know to eat to live but he don't wanna leave the crib
The kid who punched him in his face house right down the street from his
He went anyway, more scared to face his moms
She'll beat him soon as she flip out, seein his face scarred
Walkin past the dopefiends with they smoke to the place of God
Hopes and dreams pourin out the holes in they face and arms
Little man in the face of harm if he don't eat
He need energy so when he go to school he can compete
And keep up, all he got is bodegas
But hey he only got enough a for quarter water and a Now or Later
Anyway, grandma say Jesus'll be here any day
Good - cause with nuttin to eat it's gettin hard to pray...
With heartstring-pulling lyrics like this, over a soulful Madlib track, this is the type of song that Kweli is best at. It’s too bad that this song went from ‘poignant tear-jerker’ to ‘unintentional comedy‘, as the second verse devolves into a rant on how the rest of the word is starving while America is getting fat (except for the little boy in the first verse) and how they put pork product in toothpaste. As for the sappy colab with Justin Timberlake, “The Nature”? The less said about it, the better. At least it’s placed at the end.
THE GOOD (Step you’re game up, Dante!): “Everything Man”, “Hostile Gospel 1”, “Country Cousins”, “Holy Moly”, “In The Mood”, “More or Less”, “Stay Around”, “Hot Thing”, the first verse of “Eat To Live”, “Listen!!!”
THE BAD (You do know that you can listen to music AND surf the ’Net, right, Kweli?): “Say Something”, “Give ’Em Hell”, “The Perfect Beat”, “The Nature”
The 411: And to think…Kweli drops two dope albums in one year. Even if you cut the fat, you still have yourself a pretty damn good effort. And although he still has to deal with the kinks in his armor and the ever-present criticisms, at least there’s one thing he doesn’t have to deal with anymore, and that’s being in Mos Def’s shadow. Now, Mos Def is going to have to catch up to HIM!
