Talib Kweli: Hip Hop Academic

Before The Cheering Started with Budd Mishkin

Send us a text

Jay Z once memorably rapped “if skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be lyrically, Talib Kweli.”Many are the influences that have shaped Talib Kweli’s words and music for decades: the Brooklyn of his youth, the ubiquitous books and records in that Brooklyn home, the academic careers of his parents as professors and administrators. He once told me “if you combine sociology and humanities and English language (his parents’ academic specialties) with Brooklyn, you get hip hop. That was certainly the equation that worked for Talib Kweli.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices