In the wee, wee hours one night in February, rapper Talib Kweli finished up work on the first batch of songs intended for his new album, The Beautiful Mix CD. Respected in underground hip-hop for his lyrical flow, Kweli is as likely to be found playing on the stereo at a grad student party as in a tricked-out Hummer. But as friends and peers like Mos Def and now Kanye West have achieved commercial success and greater name recognition, Kweli has felt the pull to cross over.
Featuring past collaborators West and Hi-Tek and new ones Mary J. Blige and Killer Mike, Beautiful Struggle (scheduled for an August release) is Kweli's best chance to bust out of his cult appeal status. But as Kweli turned his attention last March to plans for a spring tour, a copy of the unrefined Struggle was leaked on hip-hop site Okayplayer.com by a foe familiar to Kweli and his friend West. Only months earlier, someone with the screen name of ImRickJamesBitch had posted unreleased material by West shortly after the release of his CD, College Dropout.
In a March 10 post on Okayplayer, Kweli seemed dumbfounded and most of all angry. In a candid message (archived on TalibKweli.com), he pled his case to consumers: "If I had a chance to get a hold of one of my favorite artists CD's early, I would jump at it. So if some asshole from a recording studio leaks my unfinished, unmixed and uneven album, consider it a personal triumph. Play it for your friends, and if you like it, buy the version I want you to have. If you are a fan of my music, allow me to live off it so I can continue to bring it to you."
The rapper's mood then took a quick downturn. "But once you put it on a website and encourage people to download it, you become the bigger asshole. You are not respecting my artistic process and worse, you are taking food out of my children's mouth." He continued to broadly paint his complaint until turning to the true object of his ire. "ImRickJamesBitch, are you that much of a loser that you gotta live off another man's work? Put your own f--kin' album on your website," Kweli demanded.
He digressed, before refocusing on the offending party. "That shit is not fly. I will find out who you are and you will be dealt with accordingly. This is no threat," he assured. "To everyone else, I am blessed that there is so much anticipation for what I hope will be a great album. I have never gone gold or platinum. If you think I should be by now, please don't support or do shit like ImRickJamesBitch; that shit does not help." Kweli concluded: "Please help my cause, don't hurt it, and I will always be the best artist I can be."
His heartfelt plea/rant ignored some finer points. Hip-hop artists have increasingly taken to releasing mix tapes with freestyles and exclusive tracks from upcoming albums to create buzz for an upcoming release. Kweli sells one through Okayplayer. Kweli is making a serious jump in some ways, and soliciting reaction from peers and fans sounds like the test screenings major film studios conduct. While he could never admit to it, from a commercial angle, it makes perfect sense to float select songs for reaction. A quick survey of replies to Kweli's post on Okayplayer shows that people who have heard the leaked album are pledging to buy it when it is officially released.
Suspicion surrounds the identity of ImRickJamesBitch and his/her connection to Kweli. Kanye West is an obvious suspect since his album was released by the same culprit. A more interesting theory targets Dave Chappelle. The comedian appears on Kweli's first album, Reflection Eternal, and Kweli recently appeared on Chappelle's Comedy Central show to perform a song from the leaked album. Most significantly, the comic pioneered the popular catch phrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" Regardless, the offender is unlikely to ever be caught.
Following the remarkable success of West's College Dropout, Beautiful Struggle is already guaranteed new exposure. In addition, songs I've heard off the leaked release are inventively produced, and many of the rhymes rise above the demotic to attain a lyrical force. Kweli's current tour is another chance to hear a version of Beautiful Struggle before it debuts and probably the last chance to see him in a reasonably small venue like the House of Blues.