The labels āpoliticalā and āconsciousā have been ascribed to rapper Talib Kweli throughout his music career, beginning with his start as a member of Black Star, the underground hip hop duo he founded with Mos Def 15 years ago. While he has enjoyed commercial success -- his latest album "Prisoner of Conscious," released this month, is his sixth solo venture -- Kweli has cultivated a unique hip hop voice grounded in lyricism and political awareness that has distinguished him from his mainstream rap counterparts.
On the heels of his appearance in the film, #ReGENERATION, a recently released documentary that examines apathy and activism among todayās youth, the Huffington Post caught up with Kweli to chat about the āMeā generation; Occupy Wall Street; why he doesnāt vote; whether itās worth it for young people to go to college, and more. #ReGENERATION, directed by Phillip Montgomery and narrated by Ryan Gosling, screens at Bonnaroo music festival on June 7-10. Information about hosting a free screening in your area is available here.
HuffPost: People talk about the label of āconsciousā or āpolitically consciousā rapper. Do you embrace that term?
Talib Kweli: Being called a conscious rapper is quite a compliment. Itās a great thing to be. But as an artist, my nature is to not be in a box. Once you attach such a limited description of what I do, it shuts off a whole audience of people. I work to make sure that when Iām being described, all of it is being described, as opposed to just one thing I do.
HP: Can you talk a bit about your introduction to hip hop? Early hip hop sometimes questioned the status quo, the way people lived. Do you think music ought to do that?
TK: I think hip hop is a dance music thatās rebellious by nature. I donāt think that early hip hop stood out to be a social critique. A lot of fans of mine think that hip hopās ultimate responsibility is to critique social structures. Good art paints an accurate picture of whatās going on. But the responsibility of an artist is not to be a politician or have a message. The responsibility of an artist is to be honest with themselves.
HP: I wanted to ask you about [the documentary] Regeneration. It asks an age-old question: can young people make any difference?
TK: I would venture to say that only young people can really make a difference. Even if an old person says something, it takes a young person with the energy to carry it out. The change comes from the student. It comes from the youth. Throughout history itās not been the old guard, the status quo, who have been clamoring for change.
HP: The film talks a lot about what it calls the āMeā generation. Do you buy that thereās a āMeā generation, or that thereās something specific about our generation thatās more selfish or less politically involved?
TK: I think that this generation wants to help out other people and wants to be involved in the world in a big way. I think you saw that with the Stop Kony thing, where people felt like they could just click a button and automatically become an activist. People want to do that. People want to help. They just donāt know how. They donāt have the tools.
HP: You mentioned earlier about activism and clicking a button. Do you think that this generation is facing the problem of being too polite or too tentative to mix it up in real life?
TK: You canāt just sit at a computer and be an activist. You have to get out there in the streets. I donāt care if youāre on Pinterest, I donāt care if youāre on Tumblr, I donāt care if youāre on Twitter, you have to physically get up there and get your body on the line and put your life on the line to express your thoughts and what you believe.
HP: Today, kids are graduating now with pretty high unemployment rates. Do you think theyāve been told to expect something thatās unrealistic?
TK: One of the greatest tragedies of this generation -- and even worse for my community, for the black community -- is that (for) the generation before us, if you went to college and you worked hard, you could almost be guaranteed a decent job with a 401(k). Even if it wasnāt your dream job, you could carve out a living for yourself. That doesnāt exist anymore.
Now what you have is a system where people are going into debt for the rest of their lives with this dream that going to college is going to change their lives. So if parents are telling kids, āYou have to go to collegeā without telling them why they have to go to college ā¦ youāre really crippling them for the future.
HP: In the film you talk about telling your kids they can be anything they want to be. Do you change what you tell them now that theyāre facing a future where there arenāt as many jobs, or the same security?
TK: I think itās actually easier nowadays to tell your children you could be whatever they want. You know, the idea that you could tell a child, say 5, 10 years ago, that you donāt necessarily have to go to college to be a success, that would sound crazy. But thatās the truth about todayās generation.
Itās just like voting: if you just go to college and you donāt know why youāre going and spending your money, it makes no sense to end up in debt and not know why you did it -ā just like it makes no sense to vote without knowing who or what youāre voting for.
HP: Iāve read somewhere that you donāt vote. How do you see the role of a citizen?
TK: Citizenship is participation. Iām someone who has placed myself directly at the center and at the heart of things that are going on in my community. As I get older my stance on voting has shifted from saying āI refuse to participateā to āHow can we participate in a way thatās smarter and conducive to our community?ā We have to raise candidates that are worthy of our vote.
HP: You visited Occupy Wall Street in the fall ā¦ Do you think young people are becoming more involved because of things like Occupy Wall Street?
TK: Yeah. Iām proud of this generation for bringing protesting back. Protesting is something that I had a romantic notion of until I was 15 and I went to protest the Gulf War and no one was there. I felt like in my lifetime I wouldnāt see this type of protest movement. I think technology is a big part of it. And Iām happy to see it.
HP: Are you hopeful about the future?
TK: Yeah, Iām an artist. I canāt afford not to be. All artists, even the ones who claim they are not, are ultimately optimists. Or else you wouldnāt be making art. What would be the point?
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Posted: 06/01/2012 9:46 am EDT Updated: 11/29/2012 5:50 pm EST