Hip-hop artists hit Ackerman
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 1, 2004 9:00 p.m.
Hip-hop artists MF Doom and Talib Kweli are currently hitting
the West Coast leg of their U.S. tour. The combination is an
interesting one because neither artist runs in the other’s
immediate creative circle.
“We wanted someone who would do a really interesting live
show, and MF Doom was the perfect choice,” said Kweli.
“It’s been going (well); I do my set; he does his set.
I have two background singers and a DJ. He wears a mask and
doesn’t use a DJ, but his set is very live.”
Their tour will make a stop at Ackerman Grand Ballroom today at
7 p.m. The event, dubbed “Hip-Hop Xplosion,” is
cosponsored by the Campus Events Commission, Cultural Affairs
Commission and the African Student Union. It is free and open to
all students.
These two artists are among the most vibrant voices in hip-hop
today.
Earlier this year MF Doom released “Madvillainy”
with DJ Madlib as one half of the duo Madvillain. The highly
original release has received some of the most favorable reviews of
any album released this year.
Talib Kweli’s own “The Beautiful Struggle” is
slated for release this summer. After a public battle with
bootleggers who released an unfinished version on the Internet,
Talib released a mix tape titled “The Beautiful Mix CD”
in response, urging fans to download a finished product.
“When people take music (that’s not finished) out of
a studio “¦ and put it on the Internet to be heard and
criticized, that’s the ultimate form of artistic
disrespect,” Kweli said. “If someone tries to download
it, I can’t control it. I can just be happy someone wants to
listen to my music.”
Kweli said much of the music on the official release will be
different from the bootlegged version. He is unsure which songs
will make the final cut. Among the artists with whom he
collaborated were Kanye West, the Neptunes, Just Blaze and old
compatriot DJ Hi-Tek.
He also said he did not feel pressure this time around to prove
himself as a solo artist. Kweli’s first two album releases
were collaborations: He teamed up with then-labelmate Mos Def for
1998’s underground classic “Black Star” and with
Hi-Tek in 2000 for the critically acclaimed “Reflection
Eternal.” For an artist as active and influential so early in
his career as Kweli, his own solo debut did not come until
2002’s “Quality,” which found him looking toward
outside sources for creative contributions.
“With the last album I felt like I had a lot to prove,
that I had to prove I could still do the same thing doing a solo
album. This time I just wanted to make good music from the
heart,” he said.
