Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek: Reflection Eternal Interview With L.A. DJ Reflex

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal Revolutions Per Minute on Blacksmith/Warner Bros. in-stores now!

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek: Reflection Eternal 'Revolutions Per Minute' Full Album Stream

Click below for the stream via Entertainment Weekly:
Reflection Eternal - Revolutions Per Minute

'Revolutions Per Minute' tracklisting:

01. RPM's
02. Back Again ft. Res
03. City Playgrounds
04. Strangers ft. Bun B
05. In This World
06. Got Work (Fame)
07. Midnight Hour ft. Estelle
08. In the Red
09. Lift'in Off
10. Black Gold Intro (The Black Gold Countdown)
11. Ballad of the Black Gold
12. Just Begun ft. Jay Electronica, J. Cole and Mos Def
13. Long Hot Summer
14. Get Loose ft. Chester French
15. So Good
16. Ends ft. Bilal
17. Outro

Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Revolutions Per Minute on Blacksmith/Warner Bros. arrives May 18.

J. Cole, Reflection Eternal And More Live At Rutgersfest 2010 Concert Recap

via Rutgers school newspaper The Daily Targum

About 30,000 people made their way to Livingston campus to join the Rutgers University Programming Association, Rutgers University Student Assembly and Student Life Friday for its annual Rutgersfest.

This year’s Rutgersfest lineup featured artists Brand New, Talib Kweli, J. Cole and P.O.S., as well as Battle of the Bands winner Reality Addiction.

“Rutgersfest has been in the making for about a year,” RUPA President Ana Castillo said. “It’s been a long time since we have had this many performers, so I think it is going to be fun for everyone. Hopefully everyone will enjoy it, because we do have a good mix of people.”

Students shared their views on the artists and events at the concert.

“Brand New was definitely my favorite part,” School of Arts and Sciences sophomore Alissa Jayne said. “Honestly, I have never even heard of any of the other acts, and then I downloaded some Talib Kweli, and I loved him. He was awesome.”

But not everyone agreed with Jayne.

Livingston College senior Desron Dorest said the lineup was sub-par in comparison to past Rutgersfests.

“If they had a more diverse lineup, I think it would have been a little bit better,” he said.

Still, Dorest said he had fun, and the event is not only about the musical lineup.
“[It was good] that everybody was able to stay here, and it was a great day out,” he said. “We don’t want to leave, so it was a good thing.”

During the concert, hip-hop artist J. Cole climbed down from the stage to meet the fans in the front row.

“I just try to understand that maybe next year, I won’t be able to do this, you know,” J. Cole said after the show. “Maybe I won’t have fans, or next year I will be too big to take the time out, so while I still can do it, I try to show as much love as possible.”

J. Cole, 25, is the first artist to sign with rapper Jay-Z’s label Roc Nation.

“I love playing college shows. I feel like I know these people, you know, I went to school with these people in a sense,” he said. “I feel like I know them well.”

For some students, Rutgersfest does more than just mark the end of a year at the University. It is an event to bring the University together for one last time before the semester ends.

Photos Here:
Rutgersfest 2010 - The NJ Underground

Lloyd Banks Live At The Nokia Theatre In NYC Concert Review

As reported by Jon Caramanica / The New York Times

In 45 minutes of almost nonstop bluster at the Nokia Theater on Thursday night (April 29), Lloyd Banks squeezed in one minute for another mode of persuasion: humility.

In the last three months, he’s returned from being a curio, a relic of the 50 Cent era of the mid-2000s, to a bona fide phenomenon, an unlikely twist attributable to “Beamer, Benz or Bentley,” one of the breakout rap hits of the year. But given that Mr. Banks hasn’t had one of those in a few years, he knows better than to take it for granted.

“I am completely independent at this point,” he said early in his set, painting himself as an underdog. Mr. Banks is the main protégé of 50 Cent, the Queens rap star who’s lately been in decline. But last year he announced that he was no longer signed to Interscope Records, which distributes 50 Cent’s G-Unit Records imprint, though he remains attached to the G-Unit label.

Especially in hip-hop, the role of the major label is decreasingly relevant, but for a rapper like Mr. Banks, accustomed to the old ways of success, reclaiming an up-by-his-bootstraps narrative must be alternately frustrating and invigorating.



On Thursday he stuck with invigorated, muscling his way through old hits — “Warrior,” “Straight Outta Southside,” “On Fire” — and a few listless old nonhits, his voice as molasses-thick as ever. At one point he swapped his Hermès sneakers for a pair of black work boots: “These joints cost about $1,300, but they slippery,” he joked.

“Beamer, Benz or Bentley” is classic Banks, a fusillade of dense, braggadocian internal rhymes: “Beat it, I bet she’d let me/She been fiending since she met me”; and “Press a button and I’m stunting, my roof look like it’s ducking/ Meter go 200-something and my trunk do wonders bumping.”

In other words, Mr. Banks is a brainy and boastful rapper, which leads to some stratification in his audience, some there for the attitude, and some for the intricate punch lines. That might explain, in part, the rest of Thursday’s scattershot bill: Jackie Chain, Cory Gunz and Reflection Eternal, three acts with no overlap point in their collective Venn diagram.

Best was Jackie Chain, a half-white, half-Korean rapper from Huntsville, Ala., but who received the night’s most hostile reception. What he might lack in lyrical acuity, though, he makes up for in personality: songs like “Mack a Bitch” and “Rollin’ ” are anthems waiting for audiences to recognize them.

Cory Gunz, newly signed to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Records, wasn’t booed or greeted with middle fingers by the crowd, but his quick, nimble rhymes were largely charmless.





Most vexing was Reflection Eternal, the reliable social-progressive duo of Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, who five years ago probably would not have guessed that they’d be on a bill opening for Mr. Banks. Their set — longer than Mr. Banks’s — felt like largely thankless work, the verses about Liberia and health care falling on uninterested ears. Older, more chipper songs — “Definition,” “Get By” — fared better, but not by enough to sandpaper down the dissonance.



By the time Mr. Banks finally got around to “Beamer, Benz or Bentley” at the end of his set, several dozen associates had joined him onstage. While they’d been enthusiastic up until that point, when the first peal of that song’s beat (produced by the comer Prime) dropped, they turned ecstatic.

Mr. Banks wasn’t even at his most electric, but it didn’t matter: the room carried him. There was no Juelz Santana, whose manic verse is crucial to the song’s success. No last-minute surprise appearance by the bossman 50 Cent. Just Mr. Banks, his muddled voice, that sinister beat and 10 tensed fingers, gripping tightly to the ladder so as not to fall back down.

Photo links:
Wire Image

more video below.



(video courtesy of hostile163, marcusavila, this is 50 & 1m3folife)

Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek 'Revolutions Per Minute' Tracklist

Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek Revolutions Per Minute on Blacksmith/Warner Bros. arrives May 18.

'Revolutions Per Minute' tracklisting:

01. RPM's
02. Back Again ft. Res
03. City Playgrounds
04. Strangers ft. Bun B
05. In This World
06. Got Work (Fame)
07. Midnight Hour ft. Estelle
08. In the Red
09. Lift'in Off
10. Black Gold Intro (The Black Gold Countdown)
11. Ballad of the Black Gold
12. Just Begun ft. Jay Electronica, J. Cole and Mos Def
13. Long Hot Summer
14. Get Loose ft. Chester French
15. So Good
16. Ends ft. Bilal
17. Outro

View the press release here:
Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & HiTek 'Revolutions Per Minute'

Talib Kweli & DJ Hi-Tek: Reflection Eternal SXSW 2010 Performance Austin, TX

News clipping via Live Daily

Brooklyn-based Talib Kweli made a point to stop by Austin for an unofficial SXSW performance at the DigiWaxx-sponsored free event last night (Friday, March 19) at The Ranch.

The singer/rapper took to the stage immediately after Estelle's set, and he wasted no time delving into his work. "Get 'Em High" kicked off the 30-minute performance, a song that appeared on Kanye West's 2004 debut album, "The College Dropout," for which Kweli and Common contributed vocals--and a song that the surprisingly small audience knew very well.

Kweli continued on with "Hot Thing," a sexy single from his latest effort, "Eardrum," which peaked at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 upon its release in 2007. On occasion, the performer would work in his signature free-style flow, talking so quickly, it was hard to catch more than a few obvious terms, like the word of the moment: recession. Before the venue pulled the plug--something about time restrictions on unsanctioned SXSW music--Kweli was able to get in "We Got the Beat," complete with a troupe of b-boys (a one b-girl) who flung themselves around on stage, catching the entire audience by storm.

(video courtesy of erob45)

Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek - 'In This World' (video)

Reflection Eternal: Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek - Revolutions Per Minute on Warner Brothers/Blacksmith coming soon!

Talib Kweli Performs In Dublin, Ireland

Talib Kweli performing at the Tripod in Dublin, Ireland Saturday January 30.

Photos here:
Rex Features

Related:
Talib Kweli Live At The Indigo2 London Concert Review

(video courtesy of flibber135& juliejdr55)

Talib Kweli Live At The Indigo2 London Concert Review

As reported by Chris Mugan at UK's Independent

Most rappers want to tell you about where they are from, but few can take you there as completely as this compact performer from Brooklyn. One highlight of a rare European appearance (Sunday, January 31) is a zingy run through hip-hop classics and familiar samples. Talib Kweli freestyles over them all as if at a block party in a New York project.

His problem, though, is not so much where he is at, but where he is heading. Kweli emerged in the late-1990s as part of Black Star, with the brilliant Mos Def, and remained underground until he took the major-label shilling for 2007's Eardrum, a rambling sprawl of an album, confused by big-name involvement from Will.i.am and Justin Timberlake. The founder of his own Blacksmith label may rail against inequality, but from early on has tried to dodge the label of conscious hip-hop artist.

To pursue that agenda, he has titled his next solo album Prisoner of Consciousness, but before that comes a more low-key release. Kweli has returned to his side-project, Reflection Eternal, with Cincinnati producer DJ Hi-Tek – last heard 10 years ago. For Revolutions Per Minute, due in April, the artist who can count on contributions from the likes of Kanye West and Nas has gone back to basics. Live, the rapper performs solo with only his tour DJ on a bare stage and, frankly, this is all Kweli needs.

When lines are flowing in quick succession, his rhymes and rhythms are intoxicating, especially when DJ Chaps cuts off the backing tracks for Kweli to perform a cappella. Even on the more hard-hitting tracks, volume is expertly judged, so you hear the rapper clearly – and it pays to pay attention. On his only UK date of this run, he has a lot to get through, squeezing in number after number and little of the in-between patter that slows down momentum at so many hip-hop events. Kweli regularly runs tracks together, both the earlier album Eardrum's better tunes – that mix clever word-play with sharp hooks – and promising cuts from Revolutions.

At his best, Kweli fires high-velocity verses over Hi-Tek's no-nonsense productions built on sparse beats and warm soul samples. He is technically impressive, without taking the genre anywhere new. Nor does the son of two professors have much to say of contemporary relevance, bar a curt "Tony Blair is a criminal" tossed into a wider tirade against politicians.

(video courtesy of makavelibech07)

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek On 'Revolutions Per Minute' The New Album

Vibe was on hand for the Reflection Eternal discussion session at Warner Bros. Records NYC location Thursday, January 21.

Photos from that session:
Wire Image

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal - the album 'Revolutions Per Minute' on Blacksmith/Warner Bros. Records tentatively set for release April 6.

Interview With Music Producer Hi-Tek

via Hip Hop DX

HipHopDX: How does this Reflection Eternal album compare to the first one?

Hi-Tek: I would say it compares in a way that it shows our experience and how we have grown since we did [Train Of Thought]. I wouldn’t try to say it is better or it’s [worse] than the first one, but we definitely in a different space. We haven’t slacked off with any skills, but it is 10 years later and we are working on an album together. My production has broadened, as have [Talib Kweli's] mic skills and lyrics. However, I wouldn’t compare it to the hunger on the first album, but the hunger is still there.

Hip Hop DX: Was it easy for you and him to make this album happen, as there was various rumors saying it might not happen?

Hi-Tek: It definitely wasn’t easy to go ahead with it and it may have been more on my part because I am not a touring artist. Talib, he tours 200 shows a year and I’m in the studio a lot. And on the flip-side, my ear has been trained so I am able to produce for a whole lot of other artists. I have been working with all these Interscope acts and then when it comes to something like Reflection Eternal, I have to go in and put down everything, to get back on that Kweli shit. A lot of the joints we have worked on and made together since we made the first Reflection Eternal have just been a case of me doing me and him doing him, not in Reflection Eternal mode the whole way. But when we want to go in and give back to the fans, we really have to go in and think about what we are giving to the people, and make sure we are relevant for the times.

Read the full interview here:
Hip Hop DX - Producer's Corner: Hi-Tek

Rock The Bells 2009 Southern California Show Recap With Videos, Photos And Review

Saturday August 8 in San Bernardino, CA at San Manuel Amphitheater.

Fan shot video below.

Ice Cube



Nas & Damian Marley





Damian Marley



Busta Rhymes



Slaughterhouse





Raekwon



Reflection Eternal





Evidence



L.A. Times review

Rock The Bells 2009 Southern California show photos:
Wire Image

(review courtesy of the L.A. Times)
(fan shot video courtesy of ssloco21, emceemaka, FBG33, sparksla1 and jesusemac81)

Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek perform at Audiotistic 2009 (video)

Hot Thing



Reflection Eternal



At the Audiotistic festival at the NOS Event Center in San Bernardino 5/9/09