A.V. Club: Best of the Decade

Artist Talib Kweli

It’s somewhat ironic that lyrical ability never translates to fame or fortune in the hip-hop world: While Jay-Z once fantasized that, “If skills sold, truth be told, I’d probably be / lyrically, Talib Kweli,” the former Black Star rapper himself has never approached the breakout success that all those shout-outs should rightfully have garnered him by now. Even 2007’s dense, impassioned, and undeniably banging Eardrum remained more of a critical success than a commercial one, owing to Kweli’s refusal (or inability) to capture the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle hooks that seem to come so easily to his superstar admirers. All that bothersome intellect holding him back might finally be getting to him: His new, in-the-works album is titled Prisoner Of Consciousness

Updated 11/19/2009

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