Remember this song? Well, Mychal Smith is not feeling the Talib’s decision to work with the likes of Gucci. You can read the full entry here, but here’s a portion of the article:
No artist wants to be boxed in. They don’t want to feel the pressure from their fans to constantly produce the same type of material. They desire the freedom to experiment, step outside of their comfort zone and challenge themselves and their audience to look at the art and themselves differently. I respect this outlook. I do.
But then Talib Kweli does a song with Gucci Mane and I’m forced to reevaluate everything I believe.
The rest after the jump.
Granted, I should’ve seen this coming. After Kweli essentially co-signed Slim Thug’s idiotic comments regarding black women and his assertion that people don’t like Drake simply because he’s successful, there seems to be no one in hip-hop that Kweli won’t defend/make excuses for. When he hops on a remix to Rick Ross’ B.M.F. and proudly shouts the name of Larry Hoover, don’t act surprised.
And he has every right to do so. The issue, as I see it, is that he is trying to do everything he can distant himself from the base that built him. Everyone’s favorite conscious rapper doesn’t want to be conscious anymore.
Wow. Quite an arrogant statement. Naturally enough Talib responded to said article, which you can also read of the entirety of here:
Now I don’t know Mychal Smith, but what I do know is he is a blogger that follows me on Twitter, and I guess my decision to record with Gucci Mane bothered him enough to blog about it, declaring my move a part of the demise of the conscious rapper.
I offer a different take. I say people like Mychal Smith are every bit as caught up in the flashing lights as the “ignorant” masses they like to judge. Instead of celebrating it, they get joy from speaking against it. They truly believe not liking Gucci Mane makes them intellectually superior to say, some chic down south. They pay so much attention to what they perceive to be negative, based on a limited world view, that they miss the positive, even when it’s right in their face.
I really don’t get Mr. Smith’s point of view…who in hip-hop decided that certain artists can’t work with other artists? Make sure to read both of those entries.
