Recently, Talib Kweli stated in an interview that New York radio doesn’t support New York Hip Hop artists. Afterwards, Hot 97’s program director Ebro Darden called Kweli out on that point, accusing him of “trolling.”
Since that interaction Kweli appeared on Hot 97 to discuss the point with Ebro. “The business model I’m employing is not something I learned from the old, archaic business model,” said Kweli. “If I was still doing things like I did 10 years ago, I’d be another rapper bitching a moaning on Twitter, looking for work on Twitter or whatever. I learned from the people who come after me. So if a young rapper’s looking at me like, ‘How do I do it?’ look around at your peers.”
Kweli continued, listing the people he’s learned from from a business perspective. “Because I’m learning from the TDEs of the world. I’m learning from the Nipsey Hussles of the world. I’m looking a Louis C.K. and Aziz Ansari in comedy. I’m looking at a Chance the Rapper. Chance the Rapper put out a mixtape that people bootlegged and bought so much that his mixtape ended up on Billboard. He comes out of nowhere. No one was checking for Chance the Rapper. He just made it happen. You just have to be committed. Look at Soulja Boy. People who love real Hip Hop hate to talk about an artist like Soulja Boy. To me, at the time, when Soulja Boy came out, he really changed the game.”
Talib explained that regardless of the musical content, traditional Hip Hop artists need to look outside of themselves for examples of how to properly run their businesses. “All the people that real Hip Hop hates, that’s who they need to be paying attention to,” said Kweli. “You don’t have to like the songs; you don’t have to get into the music; but look at what Lil B has done. Look at what Soulja Boy has done. On a bigger level, look at what Macklemore & Ryan Lewis did. I seen it firsthand, being on tour with them. They straight independent. They got Warner Bros. working for them, getting their radio spins up. They gonna be caked up the rest of their lives off of one album because they did it their own way.”
