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"I wanna write the songs that right the wrong," Talib Kweli raps on "Stand to the Side." Usually that's more of a threat than a promise -- Public Enemy and Dead Prez notwithstanding, revolution on wax is often a dowdy affair. But on his first proper solo album, Kweli smoothly bridges the physical and the political. Producers Kanye West and J Dilla mix a rich palette of summer-morning horns, somber strings and crisp, chattering snares to give their host's lessons added sonic urgency. Kweli's rhymes are astute and sometimes vicious: "Guerrilla Monsoon" is a fierce battle track that also features Pharoahe Monch and Black Thought. Kweli delivers "Joy," an ode to his two young children, with the same amount of passion. On the magisterial "Rush," Kweli brags, "I'm known to roll up my sleeves and put my hands in the dirt." How else is a thinking man going to make the people move?
JON CARAMANICA
(RS 914 – January 3, 2003)
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Track List
- Keynote Speaker
- Rush
- Get By
-
Shock Body (track not available in Rhapsody)
- Gun Music (feat. Cocoa Brovaz)
- Watin' for the DJ (feat. Bilal)
- Joy (feat. Mos Def)
- Talk to You (Lil Darlin') (Feat. Bilal)
-
Guerrilla Monsoon Rap (feat. Black Thought & Pharoahe Monch) (track not available in Rhapsody)
- Put it in the Air (feat. DJ Quik)
- The Proud
- Where do we go (Feat. Res) (dedicated to Weldon Irvine)
- Stand To The Side (Feat. Novel & Vinia Mojica)
-
Good To You (track not available in Rhapsody)
- Won't You Stay (Feat. Kendra Ross)
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©Copyright 2008 Rolling Stone; Jann S. Wenner, editor and publisher
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
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