Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli doesn't really like people trying to define him and his work, but he understands the impulse.
People have to put stuff in a box.
Especially the media. The media has to work with angles to create a story. He makes us think. Then, in 1998, Kweli joined up with Mos Def to create Black Star , an album that was hugely loved and critically acclaimed. Here were a couple of Brooklynites bringing back lyricism, social consciousness and spiritual awareness to a hip-hop world obsessed with death, violence and money.