Editor’s Note:

I WROTE a review for print (a while back) about a free release album by vanguard label Stones Throw Records that teamed the forces of the eccentric West Coast hip-hop producer Madlib and the erudite, pedagogical, lyrical prowess of Talib Kweli. The LP went by the name of “Liberation” and despite its most meager of price points, the nine track LP was shot through with a kind of quality, spirit and focus that belied its monetary value and distribution scheme. (That being download.) It was at the time, Kweli’s best work I argued, and I still do. Unfortunately as things go sometimes, the piece was never exposed to the light of day. But recently I listened to the album again, after it had been on the shelf for the span of a year, if not a bit more, and I feel the need to publish the piece in any way that I can because of the album’s glaring ability to show Kweli in his best form. The review is below, in full.

Talib and Madlib’s “Freedom Opus”

THE THING that Talib Kweli projects have lacked in the past is solid production. As gifted as he is an emcee, the Blackstar member and preeminent political rapper, has often been failed behind the boards, sans his partner in crime, Hi-Tek. Kweli, who is known for spitting razors in an automatic machine gun style that leaves listeners rewinding the track and asking “Yo, what’d he say?!?!?”; hasn’t experienced a production level commensurate to his verbal skill since the late ‘90s Rawkus days and that era’s jazzed-out beats — the time when he began his steady ascendance to the mantle of being a hip-hop purists’ favorite and a critical darling. It was the “Fortified Live” twelve inch that drew my attention and the attention of my circle to Kweli, as I was just in high school and just beginning to cut my teeth in the growing independent hip-hop scene. Since then, I have always held out for the promise that I heard on that twelve-inch.

So when rumors that the quirky, West Coast producer, Madlib, and Talib Kweli, were combining their forces like two comic book heroes for some hip-hop community service in the form of an album — I was as charged as a kid on Jolt cola and Nerds. And later when rumors surfaced that the album would be limitedly released for no-charge through Stonesthrow.com, I was excited for the community of hip-hop, based on the pure potential of the pairing and the possibility of Kweli sounding as well as he did on that “Fortified Live” twelve-inch from ten years ago; the very record that got me and the world “open” —in the words of Buckshot. The thing about potential, however, is that it is just that, potential. That is, until it is turned into a realized high-quality product. And Talib’s and Madlib’s album, Liberation, is a top-shelf, high-quality, realized product. The album is filled with dusty grooves from Madlib’s beat crate and record digging forays and Kweli’s lyrical craftsmanship.

Talib brings his normal automatic fire flow on the album, and his unusually sharp knowledge dropping, along with his witty observations on the hip-hop community, saying on the track “The Show”: “the only thing we know about Africa is from Nas in Belly” and “our music went from the tap dance to the lap dance.” Where Kweli differs in this outing compared to his former incarnations from the not-so-distant past is in the fun that he brings to it, finding a very happy medium between the sometimes diametrically opposed sociopolitical lyrics that he is known for and the, “let’s just say stuff to entertain” ethic of old school hip-hop. On the boards, there might not be another producer as skillful as Madlib to bring that old-school soul, blunt-out beats and West Coast underground sound to an album. He has blessed Kweli strong on Liberation and on tracks like “Funny Money” he has provided the perfect frame for Kweli’s paintings. On another standout track, the autobiographical “Happy Home”, Madlib is able to catch and match the feeling of Kweli’s family journey and he compliments Talib’s narrative well with an ultra melodic section of horns and keys that hit just right.

For those who missed the free release of Liberation, I am saddened that they may have entirely missed what might be the best free EP that they will ever come across. It is that good. But according to the rumor mill, Stones Throw will release the album again later in the year. Regardless of how the record is obtained, PreQuel recommends that you find the nine track EP in either your virtual hand (in the form of MP3) or literal hand, and that you knock that album very loudly upon receipt. Liberation is worth the listen, free or purchased.