29. "I still need to read that." In response to In response to 23 Fri Sep-04-15 07:58 AM by Brew
>this dat "bookworm" Kweli I miss. perfect example of rap >poetry imo.. Also the melancholy feel, quotables galore, dawn >of the Rawkus era,etc.. man evdrythjng csme together on this >one.
The strange thing is that I don't think that the "bookworm" Kweli ever left. He just got a lot more heavy handed with it. You saying that this track was "melancholy" kind of speaks to that. Kweli had a way, early in his career, of firing off potent social commentary without being too preachy. He was, like, super relaxed and laid back about it but the shit he was saying was heavy and important. I think at times as his career went on, he became more preachy and the mood of his tracks was a lot more heavy handed. That was probably by design based on the subject matter but I can also understand why some people found his style to be a little annoying.
I still personally follow Kweli and applaud him for staying true to the messages he has been trying to spread since he started, and think that he is underrated as a writer. People are harder than him than they should be when it comes to his mid and late career work. It's hard to match the magic they/he found on BlackStar, Train of Thought and Quality. But all that said I guess I can understand people feeling like he's been preachy in a lot of his later work.
>It also inspired my reading of 2000 seasons, which in some >ways shaped my views on pan Africanism
Yea I want to snag a copy and read it. I can't believe I haven't done it yet based on my feelings about the song and the subject matter.