TALIB KWELI INTERVIEW

Hip-hop star, creator of one of the most badass podcasts available today, and social activist, Talib Kweli has not one, not two, but five upcoming shows in the Buckeye State over the next seven days! Kweli will kick off his ‘tour’ of Ohio on Friday, March 22, in Columbus before making the trip up Interstate 71 (which will hopefully include a stop at Grandpa’s Cheese Barn) to perform in Cleveland the following evening. Next up, Kweli will perform three consecutive nights (March 26 – 28) at Dave Chappelle’s new YS Firehouse.

“I’m an artist that tours a lot, right? But I don’t get to come to Columbus, which I’m at on Friday night, and Cleveland, which I’m at Saturday night, and the days in the Yellow Springs area as much as I would like,” Kweli said in a recent phone interview on the afternoon before the beginning of his Ohio run. “When you think about how it’s broken up for marketing purposes, this has nothing to do with actual what people actually experience. But these are called B or C markets for marketing purposes, which is a shame because I have so many fans in these areas. There’s so much love and great music that comes from Ohio that I think it’s great that a local Ohio resident doing his part to make sure that Ohio gets the same love as what the A markets get.”

The “local Ohio resident” he speaks of is Mr. Dave Chappelle, who Kweli calls “the greatest comedian of all time.” Talib showcased his talents at several shows that Chappelle staged at his makeshift cornfield comedy club at Wirrig Pavilion in a rural area in Yellow Springs, Ohio, during the COVID shutdown when it was the hottest, safest, and ONLY ticket across any entertainment medium during a dark and difficult time.

“It was surreal for me as a working artist, not just as an artist, but as a working artist. It was my life’s blood. It was very necessary. Dave was very cautious, but he was very compassionate. He understands that, as artists, we need to work. You have essential workers, shout out to all the essential workers, but for art, I truly do believe that art is essential. And Dave found a way to make that happen,” Kweli said of Chappelle’s Wirrig Pavilion run. “It wasn’t done to snub any type of protocol. Our protocols were very, very, very airtight. They had early access to a COVID testing machine, so you could not come around unless you were tested. We tested daily; we tested every single person involved with the show who came to the venue. We tested people, we socially distanced ourselves, and we had masks on. So, in that way, it was very, very, very safe. And Dave did a film about it. It’s not a secret, but at the moment, we did it for months. There was one breach. There was a breach to where there was a COVID situation. We stopped. Safety first; health first. But to be able to be a part of that, I feel like it was lifesaving. A lot of people lost their lives. A lot of people are still dealing with the effects of COVID. It is not going away. It isn’t going away anytime soon. We had to find a way to live through it. And I think what Dave did was so important because he gave people hope and helped people understand that we’re going to have to figure this out together and live through this together. And I think he was earlier than the rest of the world, and it was just a blessing to see that.”

His praise for Chappelle continued:

“Dave had been consistently investing in his own community and helping to bring infrastructure and new ideas of fresh energy to this area, that area of Ohio that he’s in, specifically Yellow Springs and Dayton,” Kweli said. “And Dave is someone who I know has built his career on the coast. He started in DC, he went to New York, he went back to Hollywood, and he did some work. And I think he enjoys a certain vibe that you get on the coast that I think he felt like Ohio needed that in terms of having the space for artists to gather and do smaller things, even if you’re not like a major touring artist.“

Kweli has already graced the stage at YS Firehouse but is now returning to headline a three-night run of his own. These shows are not ones to be missed!

“I’m very excited about the first show on Tuesday the 26th, the first day of KweliFest, because it’s a reunion of sorts of me and Hi-Tek. Me and Hi-Tek have always stayed in touch. We did two albums and a run of shows together, but we haven’t done shows or been seen in public together in quite some time. So I’m very excited about revisiting some of those earlier Reflection Eternal songs on stage with Hi-Tek,” Kweli said excitedly. “J Rawls from Columbus, Ohio, will be DJing a set before, so it’s a family affair. I’ve worked so much with Ohio artists, and I’ve spent so much time here, and I’ve spent a lot of time highlighting artists in Ohio that people sometimes think I’m from Ohio when I travel the world, and I take that as a compliment.”

That’s only one night of the three-night run! That should be sufficient enough, but Kweli has two more exciting nights ready to roll at YS Firehouse! Asked to expand some more on what fans can expect at KweliFest, specifically on nights two and three:

“The first night is not just Reflection Eternal; it’s also Bun B. Bun B is foundational to hip-hop. He’s necessary in hip-hop. Of course, people know him from the Trill Burgers these days because the Trill Burgers are amazing, and he’s done great business. It was voted Best Burger in America on Good Morning America, but beyond the Trill Burger, Bun B is my homie. Me and him got a record together we’re working on. In this area of the world, Ohio has an affinity for southern hip-hop. I think people are going to come out and really enjoy what Bun B has to offer,” Kweli answered. “Of course, J Rawls is also on that night. The next night, on Wednesday, is Jessica Care Moore, one of the best poets in the world from Detroit. She won Apollo back in the day, but she’s been writing books and putting out albums. This is her second album on my label, which is a rock and roll poetry album. Black women were some of the first people to do rock and roll. I’m honored to be a part of her project, which is bringing black women’s energy to rock and roll. And so it’s a rock and roll band. NIKO IS, who’s an artist on my label as well, he’s going to be opening that show. I’m going to be hosting, DJing, and playing more of a rock and roll-based set. If you like rock and roll, and I know Cleveland likes rock and roll, you should make your way down to that. It’s really fresh, engaging, and super energetic, and dope. For the third night, the 28th, it’ll be myself and my band, The Whiskey Boys, and we definitely will be rocking out, but it’ll be rock, jazz, soul, funk, and, of course, hip-hop. We’ll be doing a full-time set, and I’m going to have some special guests, including NIKO IS and the amazing Pharoahe Monch also a guest on that night.”

It bears repeating that these are shows not to be missed!

Backing up a step, Kweli was asked about his headlining shows in Cleveland and Columbus before his shindig in Yellow Springs. He has recorded and performed in various settings since launching his career in 1997, including his own solo catalog and as one-half of the duo Black Star (alongside Mos Def). He has collaborated with many artists over the course of his career. Kweli was slightly evasive when asked what fans should expect him to play at his shows on Friday and Saturday.

“I like to keep people on their toes and manage their own expectations,” he said. “They can expect to have a great time. They can expect to leave there really appreciating hip-hop, maybe gaining something new from my catalog, maybe making a new friend. But yeah, it’s going to be a wild ride.”

Fair enough!

In addition to his music and social justice activism, Kweli hosts one of the most enlightening podcasts available on the internet, The People’s Party.

“I’m very proud of my podcast and my foray into the journalistic space. I’ll give it a disclaimer: you won’t find any juicy tidbits or no beef on my podcast. There won’t be any of that. My podcast is very much about showcasing and highlighting the careers of people who are iconic and people who mean a lot to the culture, whether they’re famous or not. I’ve had people who are super famous, and my podcast definitely, because of what I do, definitely skews towards hip-hop,” Kweli describes. “But we don’t just have hip-hop artists on. We have chefs. We have politicians. We had a few comedians. Just anything that touches the culture I think is important. And it’s really about showcasing the best and having amazing conversations. If there’s anything a guest doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it, we’re not going to talk about it. I say that because I know we’re in an era where people really are tuning into podcasts and tuning into conversations in ways that they’ve never tuned in before, which I think is ultimately a great thing. But too much of it is focused on beefs and negativity and fighting and being divisive. I’m very proud that the show I do is not that! That’s why it’s called The People’s Party. It’s called The People’s Party because there’s a party aspect of it, which is where you get the entertainment and the entertainers, and these questions about entertainment and hip-hop and rap and music, and everything. That’s really dope. That’s what I do for a living, but it’s also the people and things that the people need to hear. It’s not journalism on the surface. The job is to tell the story and state the facts and that’s what you’re really beholden to. But I think we have taken a step beyond stating the facts, and we try to raise the level of consciousness and try to deal with upliftment. That’s what that is.”

After a lengthy three-year tenure that saw Kweli release an episode nearly every week, the podcast has been tabled since December 2023.

When will The People’s Party resume?

“I don’t have an ETA, but I’m glad you mentioned that because we’ve done this podcast for three years straight, dropping an episode a week for almost three years. And that’s very hard to do,” Kweli replied. “And I’m very proud of my team for that accomplishment. But at this point, we are revamping, restructuring, and further figuring out some things. I’m not sure when the next episode is going to drop. We do have some episodes filmed, but we’re figuring out some things right now.”

As a social justice advocate, Kweli was questioned about what he thinks the most prominent issues are facing our country today.

“That’s a tough one! Well, on the macro sense, just dealing with America, our prison industrial complex, I believe is our biggest Achilles heel. I believe it’s the biggest thing that is oppressing the people because we are all complicit in creating a society where people benefit off of people going to prison. And just the way laws are structured, and prisons are structured, there’s a lot of racial disparity when it comes to the prison industrial complex. And I feel like it’s really crippling us as a nation. So that’s something that I try to actively speak up against. But beyond that, I do feel like the world is moving in the direction of a dictatorship. The world is moving in a more, I dare say, right-wing direction. And I want to be clear here because when you start talking about right versus left, people in America think solely in terms of Democrats and Republicans,” Kweli said. “And certainly the Democrats lean more left, and the Republicans are definitely the right wing in this country. But I’m not talking about a political party. When I say right versus left, I’m talking about the overall ideology of people who are more to be as kind as I can, people who are more traditional and conservative or to consider themselves more traditional conservatives, which are people who are more, for lack of better terms, forward-thinking, progressive, more inclusive and want to be about diversity versus people who want to shut people out and be less about diversity. I think I can accurately put people into those groups without being hyperbolic, and the world is moving more to the right. And I think as the world moves more to the right, less and less people have rights. And you start to see the rise of people who are anti-black and people who are anti-women, people who are anti-Muslim, and people who are anti-Jewish and people who are anti-gay. And I’m not with any of that, me personally. So I feel like that’s dangerous. And I think that, again, with the political thing, I want to stress that I don’t feel like the Democrats are doing enough to combat that type of thing. So, I don’t consider the Democrats leftists. That’s why I want to be clear when I say I’m not talking about politics when I say left or right, and I’m talking more about general ideologies.“