Talib Kweli: The Beautiful Struggle

I’ve been listening to a lot of hip hop lately. I’ve always dabbled, but never really been consistent in listening to hip hop. But for the past few months, I’ve had one or two albums in constant rotation. Right now, I have four or five. Growing up, I was never huge into it. Mostly because I was blind to fact that there was a sub-genre called ‘conscious hip hop‘. I hate that name and think it’s ridiculous that the majority of hip hop artists are merely spewing shit from their mouths to catch a buck… gotdamn The Game is the worst shit I’ve ever heard. But we’ll talk about that another time. Wouldn’t it be radass if it was the other way around? ‘Conscious hip hop’ was the norm, and that other crap was called ‘bullshit hip hop’ or something? Alright, on topic…

The Beautiful Struggle seems to touch on all aspects of Talib‘s life. It comes across as 100% genuine and sincere. No sugar-coating, no dodging issues – this dude hits the nail on the head and goes for the throat. Honesty in music has this strange refreshing feel attached to it that I just can’t get enough of. I love hearing artists tear a strip off a ‘top 40 artist’ or talk about how their label wanted them to go down one road, but they chose the other.

I downloaded The Beautiful Struggle a few weeks ago and had been listening to it non-stop. I noticed the production was a little sketchy and some of the vocals were fairly rough. A lot of the samples were too loud and it just sounded incomplete. When I picked up a retail copy this week I was blown away – completely different album! After a little research, I discovered that this album was stolen from the studio while in production and leaked back in April. Apparently, Talib wasn’t too happy about this… and who can blame him? It would be bad enough to have your album leaked months before it’s released… not to mention before it’s even completed. Worst.

Anyways, this album is solid from start to finish. It’s quite diverse and will keep you interested for a long time. If you’re into Talib, you should also check out Kanye West’s album and John Legend. That’s some talent right there.