by Yohance Kyles
“It’s about growth now. We have to grow, and that’s the point,”
recites Talib Kweli on the call-and-response intro to his latest album
Prisoner Of Conscious. Now on his 5th solo LP, Kweli seems to be on a mission to escape the confinement of labels.
P.O.C. still contains the Brooklyn emcee’s prolific lyrical talent that he has demonstrated since his debut on
Black Star
with Mos Def, but this time around Kweli has moved a way from the
social-political themes of past projects in favor of a more personal
approach to his songwriting. In order for Kweli to challenge himself as
an artist and to reflect his reach as an international performer, this
collection of work was created with a feel of universal relatability.
“On this album, the tracks I picked and the amount of live
instrumentation I used was a little more focused on the world and me
being a musician of the world rather than me just being a Hip-Hop artist
from Brooklyn,” says Kweli.
Talib’s affection for diverse musical sounds is displayed with the
electronic energy of “Upper Echelon,” the Afrobeat-inspired “High Life”
featuring Massinfluence’s Rubix & Sierra Leonean Hip-Hop crew Bajah,
and “Favela Love,” a collaboration with noted Brazilian musician/actor
Seu Jorge.
While
Prisoner of Conscious does take the listener around
the globe, Kweli made sure to showcase a homegrown Hip-Hop and R&B
accent as well. “Rocketships” gives Talib, and guest Busta Rhymes, an
opportunity to tackle the dark, drum-heavy production of RZA from the
Wu-Tang Clan. The New Yorker taps New Orleans native Curren$y and Los
Angeles resident Kendrick Lamar for the tri-coastal “Push Thru” produced
by Symbolyc One. Collaborations with Miguel, Melanie Fiona, Marsha
Ambrosius, and Ryan Leslie bring a soulful flavor to their respective
tracks.
In total, there are 13 credited featured artists on
P.O.C. which is the most guest appearances for any Talib Kweli solo album. According to Kweli, his intention on 2002′s
Quality, 2004′s
The Beautiful Struggle, 2007′s
Eardrum, and 2011′s
Gutter Rainbows
was to share his distinct vision, but after over 15 years in the game
Kweli did not feel bound to only concentrating on his own perspective
for this project.
“A lot of times with my solo albums, I’ve focused on making sure you
really heard my voice, and this time I didn’t bother with that,” says
Kweli. “Whenever I thought about wanting to work with someone I said,
‘let me just hit them up and let me see if they’d be into it.’ So I was a
lot freer in the decision-making process than I’ve normally been.”
One collab that may surprise some longtime Kweli fans is the song
“Before He Walked” with Nelly, but Kweli believes the St. Louis rapper’s
verse could shock some listeners.
“I think it’s interesting, because people don’t usually get to hear
Nelly being introspective,” says Kweli. “I think he’s a great musician,
and I think people are going to really like what he contributed to the
album.”
Beyond working with other musicians, Kweli has also enlisted the talents of visual artists.
Prisoner Of Conscious’ physical packaging will include artwork from various painters, graphic designers, and photographers.
“The album cover is the back of a canvas that somebody would paint
on. Inside the album cover are actual pieces of art that artists have
done,” reveals Kweli. “It’s people’s different interpretations of what
‘prisoner of conscious’ means.”
The art component was curated by Jeff Staple of the highly successful creative consulting firm
Staple Design. Kweli contacted Staple through Twitter about designing the cover for
Prisoner Of Conscious. Eventually, Staple met with Kweli in the studio, and the two discussed their interpretations of the album’s title.
After realizing each had a different idea of what “prisoner of
conscious” meant, Staple came up with the idea of letting different
artists define the phrase in their own way. Allister Lee, Chris Mendoza,
Eric Haze, Felicia Douglass, James Jean, Sophia Chang, and Chuck
Anderson of No Pattern all contributed to the project.
“I chose artists that all have been greatly influenced by Hip-Hop and
Kweli in particular,” says Staple. “The result is almost as if Kweli
had given a brief to the artists and asked them to envision what a
‘prisoner of conscious’ looks like to them.”
In a way,
P.O.C. is a new beginning for Kweli. The
37-year-old emcee has been working on the album for four years (some of
the early recordings like “I’m On One” and “Cold Rain” ended up on
Gutter Rainbows), and in that time he reunited with Hi-Tek for
Revolutions per Minute, released a mixtape and album with Res as Idle Warship, and dropped the free solo project
Attack the Block.
Even with that impressive amount of varied work added to his résumé
recently, Kweli was still motivated to push himself beyond the
“conscious rapper” tag constantly placed on him with
Prisoner of Conscious.
“My music gives you a message, true and respect is due, but music is
emotion that’s lost on the intellectuals,” raps Kweli on “Before He
Walked.”
With
Prisoner Of Conscious, Talib Kweli invites the scholar,
the world traveler, the artist, the Hip-Hop head, the R&B fan, and
every other member of the global community to his personal celebration
of musical freedom.
allhiphop.com
