Talib Kweli

Talib Kweli Greene has built a career on literate, socially engaged rhyme. Born in Brooklyn on 3 October 1975, he grew up in Park Slope, where his mother was an English professor, and as a teenager was drawn to the Afrocentric sound of De La Soul and the wider Native Tongues circle he met in high school. That grounding runs through his work. He is best known as one half of Black Star, the duo he formed in 1997 with fellow Brooklyn rapper Yasiin Bey.

Their 1998 single "Definition" entered the Billboard Hot 100, and the eponymous debut album that followed entered the Billboard 200. Kweli then teamed with Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal, whose 2000 album Train of Thought was recorded at Electric Lady Studios. His 2002 solo debut, Quality, yielded "Get By", which peaked at No. 77 on the Hot 100, and the album reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200. Black Star returned for No Fear of Time in 2022, and in 2011 he founded his own label, Javotti Media.