Fort Greene Fest quick recap

If you didn't make it out to the Fort Greene Fest on Saturday you missed out. It was great to see more programming for our demo.
Free and in the neighbourhood too.
You didn't have to troop to DUMBO like at our joint. You could walk there (with two kids, a stroller and a baby bjorn like your boy did). Hot, sweaty b@#%&h
Props to the organizers. I know how hard it was to pull off and y'all did your thing.
Miles Boogie was a dancing fool when Kweli got on.

-I still like our park (smile).
-The dirt in the middle was not that fresh but no biggie.
-Their lineup was much more acoustic and soul-like.
-They did give a lot of local guys a chance to shine which was great.
-Food was dope. And those vendors made a killing. Shout to my peoples at Jakada Juice and Smooch.

Chip Fu was a little gassed on the Fu Shnick legacy. He was pissed because he thought no one wanted to hear his new shit so he begrudgingly rocked 'La Schmoove', 'Ring The Alarm', and 'True Fushnick' which all those young bucks didn't really know. So he was stuck. I don't think he rocked one complete song. I guess his new shit is half reggae/half hip-hop. Hope it does well for him.

Kweli closed and it was the best Kweli show I have seen in a loooong time. Honestly.
I think the short time he had forced him to concentrate the content which worked well for me.
Jean Grae had her time and she did well.
Kweli has mad songs. I didn't really appreciate it. He had enough joints to truly rock his 30 minutes.
Good shit cousin.

and oh yeah I know why he beat Swizz. Swizz's joint is boring.

Kweli beats Swizz!?!

this producer will move units


As reported by SOHH who provides Soundscan for us cella dwellas with no account - Talib Kweli trumped Swizzy by 20,000 copies.

I don't know what's crazier:

1. the fact that with all those marketing dollars spent on One Man Band Man that he lost to Kweli. BET commercials. SOHH and alliphop tags

2. That Kweli beat him with no radio play (that I know of in my ignorance) compared to 'Money In The Bank'

3. and no video play

4. That Swizz only did 40k. Blacksmith and Warner have to be happy with Kweli's 60K

5, The complete inability to parlay Swizz's monster year of outside production into personal success. Wait a minute. Didn't that happen to Skateboad P and Timalam (Timbaland). Maybe these producers are latent human brands with way less visibility outside of industry circles. Maybe those producer advances and publishing checks are so sick they don't care. (Swizz uses a chopper to get back and forth to the city so we know he ain't broke.)

I really thought Swizz was gonna be a sleeper
Well I guess this does prove there is something to these inteligent backpackers (jaded major label A&R drones).
Is the okayplayer/brooklynbodega/sandbox/hiphopsite demo that strong still.
Stronger than the too sexy for my shirt demo of Fader/Pitchfork/whatever 'now' blog
That's Common and Kweli. 1 and 2 respectively albeit in weak weeks.

tried to post the new Talib Kweli video

I tried to post it from YouTube but there is some issue going on.
The joint was 'Hot Thing'
Is there any buzz on this album. I love Kwel but he killed me on the last joint. I hope he has tightened up the ship.

Let me know

Thanks Kweli

this guy appreciates Kweli

Let's keep it real, the mega human brand that is Kanye 'to the' owes a tremendous debt to one Talib Kweli Greene.

Before Kanye was too sexy for his shirt he earned his backpacker respect by producing 'Get By' and a bunch of joints on 'Quality.' I remember when we recorded 'Mood Swing' - the joint Kweli did with Asheru. Kweli was playing joints off of 'Quality' and talking about the beats he got from 'this dude Kanye that works with Jay-Z.' My response was 'you mean that dude Kane?' (a problem with Mr. West's plaques).

Kanye may have hit gold with H to the Izzo (overated) and the Scarface joint but he got his Hip Hop Nazi/Bougie Hip Hop fans from Kweli.

The inspiration for this post? Listening to the 'Get By' remix on the C train. Which made me think of the line (and I paraphrase) 'Hov ain't get a beat from me in a minute / He heard 'Just To Get By' and I was re-hired.' Even the Louis Viton Don would agree. Plus I remember an interview where Kanye spoke on how he modeled his live show after Kwel and how going on tour with Kweli was the biggest boost to his career.

Anyhoo, I say this to say how fucked up it is that Kanye's status has so wholehearyedly eclipsed Kweli's. On paper Kweli is a better MC although not nearly as entertaining. The bottom line is that there is no good reason why there is a such disparity between the two.

Kanye should take out a full page ad in the Times thanking our man Twig Ali aka Kweli. (what up Hodge).

(Another 'who cares' moment. At the Apollo in 2002 or something with J-Live. We had to share a dressing room with Kanye. We looked on the door and was like 'who the hell is this'. Went in. Drank all the beer and ate all the food. 20 min later Kanye and crew walk in with the same look. 'who the hell is J-Live?' They bounced and an hour later I'm like who is this clown rhyming in a white dinner jacket. Who knew?'