Talib Kweli (New York) Photo by April Silver A Brooklyn Native, Talib Kweli Greene is the eldest of two songs born to parents who were both educators. As a kid, Kweli was an avid reader and gifted writer and in elementary school he began writing plays, poetry and short stories. In high school, Kweli found a kindred spirit in a kid named Dante Smith, who shared his passion for hip-hop and who would eventually go on to gain notoriety as Mos Def. The two began hanging out in Washington Square Park in downtown Manhattan, where aspiring MCs from all five boroughs of NYC would converge to battle each other. Then, in 1994, on a visit to Cincinnati, Ohio, Kweli met Tony “DJ Hi-Tek” Cottrell who was impressed by Kweli’s rhyme style and tapped him to appear on several tracks of local hip hop group Mood’s 1997 album. That same year, Kweli and Hi-Tek released “Fortified Live” as a single on Rawkus under the name Reflection Eternal. The track became an instant underground classic that immediately established the duo as an up-and-coming force to be reckoned with. The following year, Kweli teamed up with Mos Def to record and release Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star. The disc was widely hailed as one of 1998’s finest albums. Later in 1998, Kweli continued to strike a chord with fans by backing his thought-provoking words with action. When Brooklyn’s oldest black-owned bookstore, Nkiru Books, was in financial trouble, he and Mos Def purchased it and eventually converted it into the Nkiru Center for Education, a non-profit organization promoting literacy and multicultural awareness for people of color. In 1999, Kweli and Mos Def teamed up once again to spearhead the making of Hip-Hop for Respect, a four-song maxi-single featuring 41 MCs who collaborated to protest the murder of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed African immigrant shot 41 times by New York City police that same year. Kweli’s next creative project dropped in 2000 when he and Hi-Tek reunited to record Reflection Eternal, an unyielding and symbiotic aural journey into the creative minds of a brilliant emcee and talented musician that offered an idyllic remembrance of things past, present, and yet to come. Kweli’s lyrical dexterity and rapidly expanding popularity soon established him as a hot commodity among his peers, as he was invited to tour with many of the artists he had grown up admiring. Despite his many recordings and achievements, no album exemplifies Kweli’s tremendous ability better than Quality. The disc is a compelling sign of his artistic and personal maturation, in which Kweli delves into an even greater variety of subject matters. Kweli is also well known as an engaging lecturer and is currently involved in a lecture series that visits many universities across the nation. More Bios: Marinieves Alba | Ang 13 | Shaheen Ariefidien | Max Benitez | James Bernard | Toni Blackman | Triple Blak | Jeff Chang | Kevin Coval | Jonzi D | Mos Def | Martha Diaz | Jessica Green | James "Casper" Jankowiak | Talib Kweli | Bakari Kitwana | M1 | Boogie McClarin | Ivor Miller | Marcyliena Morgan | David Muhammad | Yunus Rafiq | Dr. Raquel Z. Rivera | Livio Sansone | Clyde Valentine | Cristina Verán | Zephyr