Blogtown, PDX

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Music 3,000 Miles from Brooklyn.

Posted by Erik Henriksen on Tue, Nov 21 at 9:31 AM

Ears are still ringing from last night’s Talib Kweli show at the Crystal. If you missed it, we aren’t friends anymore. It was excellent. Talib Kweli is roughly 800 times better live than he is on disc, which is a pretty astounding discovery to make. Opening up with “Listen!!!,” he kicked into a bunch of his best stuff (including a fairly amazing/surprising version of “Get ‘Em High” off of Kanye West’s College Dropout), settled into some stuff off of Reflection Eternal, and wrapped it up with a few new tracks off his upcoming album. But set list aside, it was the energy in that room that caught me totally off guard; it’s the type of urgent, all-encompassing, fucking fun vibe one always hopes to feel at a hiphop show, but one that proves frustratingly elusive. But it was there last night; there were a good amount of people there and they were all amped, and while the Crystal’s sound is still for shit (why can’t they fix this?) at least they can kick out some serious bass—which, in conjunction with the sweet spot on that floor, can shake up your guts something powerful.

Anyway: one hell of a show, one of the very best I’ve seen in a long while. I’ll put it this way: Brooklyn is my favorite place on the planet (and yes, that statement is almost fatally vague, is, considering all that the borough contains, but still, it is true), and instead of feeling like it’s 3,000 miles away, last night I felt like it was right fucking here. Which is pretty rad, and pretty amazing, and since I’m tried of writing about it, so let’s just do this up right and throw some YouTube action on here.

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Comments

Brooklyn's great. Shame it's so expensive!

Posted by Matt Davis | November 21, 2006 10:03 AM

Talib Kweli > Mos Def

Mos was the weak link in Black Star, for sure.

Posted by Tron Javolta | November 21, 2006 10:08 AM

I'm not sure I agree that Mos was a weak link. True, I've never been tremendously into his solo stuff, but w/r/t Blackstar, I thought he and Kweli were a really solid and complimentary duo.

Posted by Erik Henriksen | November 21, 2006 10:15 AM

i heard mos had to see a chiropractor after black star after carrying all the weight.

talib is decent for sure but always remains a split second behind whatever beat he is working with. mos has total control.

but if mos's new album is filled with more rap/rock nonsense then i will shut up and stop defending him forever more.

Posted by mos for pres | November 21, 2006 10:57 AM

Man.

Mos Def is ANNOYING. Dude googled "black history"... rapped about it, and he thinks he knows somethin'.

Rappers like Mos KILLED the "hip-hop" scene. Seriously. If I wanted to learn something, I'd pick up a book... (One that wasn't filled with racially biased content, mind you)... ?uestlove is on his way out, too. Yawn. Talk about some has-beens.

Rap-Rock ... BARF... Hip-Hopera? BAARRF... That one song he had on that Rawkus Records comp was awesome, though.

Talib > Mos

Posted by Tron Javolta | November 21, 2006 12:26 PM

Tron, you sound as racist as Michael Richards. What kind of rap do you like? You probably don't even like good hiphop—Lyrics Born, Lifesavas, the Roots, Majesdiq. You're probably only into crack rap and mysogynist crap that makes you feel like what you imagine feeling black to feel like. Why doen't you leave hiphop to people who DO actually read books and have something positive to say to the community, instead of perpetrating terrible racial stereoypes?

Posted by raina | November 21, 2006 3:15 PM

"Live nigga shit be straight fuckin' up the white folks" - "Do it Now" Mos Def & Busta Rhymes

I SOUND misogynistic? I listen to hip hop to "feel" black? Kramer?

What what?

You lost me. I'm down with "hip hop", Jungle Brothers, De La Soul, Tribe, Souls of Mischief.... Sure, whatever. Seen all but Souls live... But Mos is a hypocrite. He'll go on MTV and preach racial equality, but then on his CD, you hear lyrics that talk about "fuckin up the white folks"?

Naw, I ain't buyin' it. Fuck a Mos Def.

If I wanted to be preached to, I'd go pick up the new Kirk Franklin... at least Kirk Franklin bumps.

Posted by Tron Javolta | November 21, 2006 3:54 PM

Can you see this. Do not hesitate to choose. Look

Posted by poker | November 27, 2006 8:01 PM

Hi guys its me again. Can you look

Posted by order wellbutrin | November 28, 2006 1:13 AM

Please do not hesitate to choose. This

Posted by order vicodin | November 30, 2006 5:01 AM

tron, even mlk went back on integration saying that we were integrating into a meat grinder or something worse than we were at. for mos to say that within his song is no different. also, you might be selectively hearing just "fucking up the white folks" without taking the whole lyrical excerpt into consideration and he's preaching black history because the chances that you would have picked up a book and willingly read about the black struggle is slim to none.

Posted by anti-matter | December 2, 2006 10:16 PM

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