State Champ Radio Talib Kweli
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Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey, collectively known as Black Star, booked a trio of shows in the United Kingdom to celebrate three decades of existence as a crew, but things didn’t go as planned. Talib Kweli was witnessed on video screaming at a security guard during a show that was marred by reported time issues, but the Brooklyn rapper offered a statement explaining his side of things.
TMZ Hip Hop reports that Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey were performing at the 02 Victoria House in Manchester last Saturday (November 15) when, near the end of their set, a security guard walked out onstage to enact a curfew.
Kweli took offense to the guards coming out one minute after curfew and gave them a tongue lashing that can be seen in the video in this link.
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Talib Kweli has since offered a statement to TMZ Hip Hop explaining his reaction to the guards ending their set as they did.
From TMZ:
Black Star was at the O2 Manchester venue at 8:30PM for a 9PM set time, with an agreed to 11PM curfew. At 8:50PM the venue decided to push the show time back to 9:15PM without any input from Black Star, which made us end the show later than planned. At exactly 10:58PM as Black Star was performing our final song for the night, I witnessed venue staff on the side of the stage, harassing Black Star staff about the 11PM curfew.
At exactly 11PM, as Black Star was saying good night to the crowd, (we had completed our last song by then) someone from the venue came onto our stage to chastise us and demand we leave the stage. This is very disrespectful and not standard. You don’t walk on an artist’s stage during a show. I’m sure they would not have treated a white, UK artist this way, especially when we hadn’t disrespected the curfew at all.
When I came off stage, I asked to speak to the man who came on the stage. I was instead greeted by aggressive security guards who began to disrespect me immediately, so I argued with them and held them accountable for how they treated us as guests who helped the venue make money. O2 Manchester called security on their main act for the night to enforce us leaving the stage at 11PM, even though we were already in the process of leaving the stage at that exact time.
Kweli goes on to say that 02 Victoria House staff and crew should apologize to he and Yasiin Bey and their team for what took place. However, fans who attended the set say that the group wasn’t exactly the most pleasant during their November 11 stop at the 02 Academy in Brixton. Accounts online reported that the group took the stage just 30 minutes before curfew, performed only 25 minutes of their set, and told the booing crowd they were welcome to leave, among other choice words.
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Madlib is one of the best producers in Hip-Hop and his deft touch behind the boards extends far beyond the genre most associate him with. The Oxnard, Calif. native joined his brother Talib Kweli on Shade 45’s Sway In The Morning, revealing that he’s got albums with the late Mac Miller, Planet Asia, and Erykah Badu in the tuck.
Madlib, who doesn’t do a ton of media appearances, spoke briefly on the aforementioned projects, and considering he has a history with the trio of artists, fans should expect more of that Beat Konducta magic.
“Right now, I’m finishing up the Mac Miller album, Planet Asia album, Erykah Badu album, different stuff,” Madlib said, with Sway Calloway following up to ask if the estate is in support of Madlib working on the Miller project, to which he confirmed they’ve given their blessing. Sway noted that Miller appears on Liberation 2, the joint project featuring the producer and Kweli.
Fans of Planet Asia are well aware of the track Madlib remixed titled “Definition Of Ill,” which stamped the Fresno, Calif. rapper as one of the best lyricists just ahead of the turn of the century in 1999. The Gold Chain Music honcho has remained busy over the past two decades with a number of high-quality projects and this upcoming body of work will add to that.
The Bad Kid also worked in the past with Badu on the albums New Amerykah Part One (4th World War) and New Amerykah Part Two (Return of the Ankh), released in 2008 and 2010 respectively.
Check out Talib Kweli and Madlib on Sway In The Morning below.
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Photo: Getty
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Source: Prince Williams / Getty
Veteran rapper Bun B took time to reflect on Jay-Z’s apparent usage of his lyrics for one of his hits and on their relationship in an interview.
The “Still Trill” rapper sat down as the guest on the most recent episode of the People’s Party with Talib Kweli podcast. At about the halfway mark the discussion soon turned to his feelings about the revelation that the first four lines of the third verse of Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” were taken from Bun B’s verse from the UGK song “Touched.” The track was on their iconic 1996 album Ridin’ Dirty. “99 Problems” would go on to be one of the standout hits from The Black Album.
“I feel like enough people know,” the Port Arthur, Texas native said. “But I don’t feel like it’s that big of a deal. I would call it mutual respect. We do this a lot in Hip-Hop, right? Where we have artists who have said, ‘Fuck that was dope, the way he said that.’ And sometimes you wanna pay homage to that wordplay. How many songs, Kweli, have you listened to and been like, ‘I woulda rhymed that last part like this.’”
He continued plainly: And I think that’s what happens. I think you feel like, ‘This is a dope rhyme, I don’t think enough people heard this shit. I’m finna drop this shit in here.’ Sometimes you take a dope rhyme and make it a hook, and then people gotta go back and figure it out. But nah, I don’t think a lot of people know that. I don’t think it’s a big deal that they don’t know. Or a big deal if they do.”
The Trill Burgers founder has often spoken about his connection with Jay-Z, dating back to Pimp C’s guest verse on “Big Pimpin” from Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter. In the years since Pimp C’s passing, Bun B has shared that his UGK partner had initial misgivings about appearing on the track out of respect for the late 2Pac.
“So, 2Pac was not a Jay-Z fan, this is very well-known,” Bun B said in another podcast interview. “Jay-Z had been introduced to UGK by a big DJ in New York named Clark Kent. And he’s like, ‘I like these guys, I wanna work with them.’ And Pimp C did not want to fuck with people that 2Pac did not fuck with, because he thought 2Pac was the best judge of character.”
Check out the entire podcast episode below.
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