Excerpt from Talib Kweli interview

T=Talib Kweli
S=James Spady


S: You initially met Mos Def when you were 14 years old and later
you hooked back up in college, right?

T: Mos was going out with this girl who was a roommate of the girl
who was managing me. And so I used to be at the house. When he’d
come over I’d say, “Dante, what’s up?” “What’s up? How you doing?”
It was an acquaintance sort of thing. That’s how he came back into
my life. I knew him already…

S: What led you brothers to say let’s do this Black Star thang?

T: We were performing together a lot. We both had singles out on
Rawkus around the same time.

S: So the label brought you together.

T: No. It wasn’t the label that brought us together. It’s just that
we both had these songs. Lyricist Lounge had a big part to do with
it. It was Company Flow, Rah Digga, Natural Resources, Mos Def and
Talib Kweli. Me and Mos had a song together. Mos would always go
last and I would always go right before Mos.  I’d do my set. I’d do
“Fortified Live.” You’d come on with me and do “Fortified Live” and
then you’d do your set. That’s how we did all the shows. So people
started enjoying the energy of us together. I started being like,
if I had a show, call him, “You coming?” And he’d show up at all of
my shows and I’d show up at all of his shows. Then it was like, “Yo,
we should do a group together.” Around the same time I was talking
to Jarrett at the label about how to promote the album. I was
telling him how much I enjoyed working with Mos. We already had the
name. We said, “Maybe we should call it ‘Black Star.’” He said, “You
know what, you guys should do something together. We should put out
an EP on you guys together.” I said, “You know what, we should do a
Black Star EP, me and Mos Def.” He said, “Yeah!” They gave us
$30,000 and we went to L.A. Mos was working with “NYPD Blue.” He
flew me, Jay-Waltz, Hi-Tek, and my man Rick out to Los Angeles. We
all stayed in his hotel room. We used my friend Kenny’s father’s
studio. He let us use it for like $20 an hour. We came up with
“Brown Skin Lady,” “Definition,” “Re:Definition,” “Knowledge of
Self,” and “Children’s Story” in a week. We came back to Rawkus and
played it for them. They gave us more money to do more songs.

S: $30,000 wasn’t going to allow you to do very much at all was it?

T: It didn’t do shit, to be honest with you.

S: Why did you accept such a low amount?

T: Because I didn’t know any better. It was, like, here I am working
at a bookstore making a thousand dollars a month. And here are these
White boys like, “We’ll give you $30,000 to record an album.” It
sounded great. Fine. “Give me the money! Let’s go!” It wasn’t until
I got a manager that I realized that was crazy. We recorded… The
Black Star budget went directly from Rawkus to my bank account. I
wrote the contracts on my computer. I drafted all the contracts for
Vidal, Common, everybody. I wrote contracts for the producers. I
called the producers and I booked the studio time.

S: Why did you do all of that? How did you learn the game?

T: Because I thought that was what rappers did. It wasn’t any
“learning” to do. I mean, it wasn’t even like that. It was a
no-brainer. I mean they gave me money. We need to go in the studio.
Call Funk and Slice. How much? Give them the money. Keep the
receipts. That’s what I did. I paid for the flights. We had to fly
around. Everything. We recorded the whole album for $70,000.

S: That’s impossible, man.

T: It’s possible!!! I did it. I did it. And it shouldn’t cost any
more than that to record an album. It’s just that the music
industry is so inflated, so bloated.

S: That’s about 12% of what one normally would need to record an
album, on the average.

T: Of what I just spent recording my new album. This is why I had to
check myself. Cause I’m like, “Yo, I recorded the Black Star album
for $70,000 myself, with no help from the record label, with no A&R
department, no nothing.” Nobody was making any phone calls for me or
nothing. I had a challenge. I was angry with myself. I said, “Damn,
I spent $70,000 recording an album with a recording company that
has a full staff.” Everyone has their hand out and that’s what it
is. It’s about everyone having their hands out. The record company
is imploding itself. But you don’t need to spend that much. The
same way I’m saying you don’t need to spend that $70,000 on the
video. You don’t need to do it.

S: I want you to contrast your experiences working at two very
distinct bookstores. Shakespeare is down in the Village and Nkiru
over the bridge in Brook-nam [Brooklyn].

T: Haa. Haaaaaaaaa. [Talib laughs knowingly]

S: Why are you laughing before I finish the question? How did you
first get into Shakespeare of all places?

T: I was going to the Tisch School for the Arts studying
Experimental Theatre. Shakespeare was right across the street and I
needed a job. After class I went across the street. I was like, I
was like, “I need a job.” The only job I would accept was working
at a bookstore or at a music store. I don’t want no other type of
job. So I went to Tower Books and I went to Shakespeare.
Shakespeare hired me. It was shitty. They paid me $4.20 an hour. I
worked from five to midnight everyday. And then from midnight to 5
in the morning I would be working with Funkmaster Flex and Jessica
Rosenbaum at The Tunnel.

S: What were you doing with Funkmaster Flex?

T: Handing out flyers. I had to go to the club and put up posters.
Let’s say Domino was performing tonight. I would put up the Domino
poster. I had to carry Funkmaster Flex’s records and Kid Capri’s
records.

S: So that was a part-time job.

T: Yeah, but that took over...
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