Talib Kweli...BREATHe

Kweli Words
www.talib-kweli-blog.com

I don’t make music for the fans. I never have, and god willing I never will. Do I have your attention? Are you offended? Do you understand? Lemme explain…. The true music fan respects the artist who is honest with him or herself. The art is the expression..if I’m only expressing things that are of value to you, than I’m not being a true artist. Once I start to do it for the sake of the fans, then I will really fall off and become irrelevant. I will become transparent..instead of the complaint being, “it doesn’t sound like black star”, it will be, “he hasn’t grown since black star.”
The honest artist will grow and challenge his audience to follow where he is going, and not the other way around. People who love Be shitted on Electric Circus, but they fail to realize Common had to make Electric Circus to get to Be. It is a process that is easy to criticize if you’ve never had to do it. It’s not like Electric was for him and Be was for the audience. They were both made for him Think about this before you say I’m supposed to make music for the fans. Uhh, no, I’m not. You hear artist who make music for the fans all the time in the media. If someone asks them, why do you only talk about sex violence drugs and jewelry, their stock reply is “I’m making music for the fans, I’m giving people what they want.” You look at some of their sales and think, hey maybe they’re right. Then you come to your senses and be like fuck that! .
I’m not that dude. I make music for me, and so do my favorite artists.

I’m strictly talking about the process of creating music in the studio though. Once you put a barcode and a price tag on it, it no longer just belongs to you, it belongs to everybody. Like Cee Lo said, we are selling soul. In every song put out for consumption is a piece of my soul. It is intensely personal, that’s why I only make music and get on stage with people I’m cool with. Anything else would be unnatural and not correct. On stage, I strictly belong to the people. In videos, I am trynta to get the people to spend money on the album. However, I cannot let these realities corrupt the creative process. The reason why my shows stay packed is because I work hard to keep it honest. This is not what I believe, it is knowledge I’ve gotten from doing it so long. You know what else is interesting? The same fan who shits on an artist for doing an ad or a song they feel like is just for the money is the first one to say you should respect me because I bought your album. This is why you can’t make music for anyone but yourself..Phonte from Little Brother talks about this excellently in one of his blogs.





I started a label with Jean Grae and Strong Arm Steady, Blacksmith Music, distributed by Warner, and we will define the vanguard of underground coast to coast.. My most recent albums and mixtapes got everyone from David Banner to Wordsworth to Rakim to Doom to Papoose. No artists on this site puts out more music than me, thru a label or myself or otherwise. I’m definetly not making the music I used to, and I’m not going to, because the nature of the artist is to grow. If you want me to sound like I’m 20 and just signed to Rawkus, don’t hold your breath. You don’t have to buy the new shit, someone will. Just respect what I’ve done for the community you cherish so much. Respect M1, even if you don’t like the album, that’s all I’m saying..If I don’t have the right to say that, then I shouldn’t be down, y’all are right…

{Written for his blog,Please visit www.talib-kweli-blog.com for the complete script of this BREATHe moment,words written by the man himself, Twalib Kweli}