Album: Talib Kweli – Ear Drum

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Hip Hop is dead?! Tell that to Brooklyn, NY native Talib Kweli, who delivers yet another potent dose of thinking-mans music on his third solo album, Ear Drum. The release of this much delayed album follows the usual record label drama and the coming together of his label, Black Smith Music.

The man originally known as one half of the acclaimed duos Black Star with Mos Def and Reflection Eternal with Hi-Tek, goes straight for the jugular on the operatic Hostile Gospel, summing up his feelings on Hip Hop music’s current state (“I call these rappers baby seals ‘cause they club you to death/I can call them NAVY Seals ‘cause they government Feds”). One of Kweli’s most potent concoctions to date has to be the soul-searching Hell, where he tackles the weighty issue of religion, citing that more conflicts and wars have been started over religion that any other issue in the world. He delivers his sermon, pun intended, over the same jazz drum loop first dug up by Eric B. and Rakim on Mahogany in 1990 and later on Biggie’s posthumous track Dead Wrong. 

It is reassuring to hear the Brooklyn MC joined by Texas legends UGK, Bun B and Pimp C, on the bouncy Country Cousins, as the trio talk about their individual relationships with Hip Hop growing up in their respective states. Hip Hop needs more unity like this. The Will.I.Am-orchestrated Hot Thing may, on first listen, come off as a contrived attempt at reaching the charts and top 40 radio, however the track grows on you and you can appreciate it for being an above average up-tempo party track. For further laidback fare Kanye West lends his soulful production touch on the excellent late night lover’s anthem In the Mood. 

Ear Drum is consumed by a euphoric world inhabited by classic Soul and R&B and outstanding lyrical performances, sometimes a little too much for it’s own good. Overall though, for a top quality release that you can play from beginning to end without skipping, don’t look any further. Cop this in your eardrum!  

Available Through Warner Bros. Records/Black Smith Music