Talib Kweli, whose Gravitas album is now available, recently spoke with HipHopDX about how the collection is different from previous projects he’s released and what fans can expect from the set.
“The first thing that they can expect from Grativas is to have a direct relationship with me,” Kweli said exclusively to HipHopDX. “Gravitas is direct to fans. It’s only available at kweliclub.com. I want your e-mail. You can expect that I’ll have your e-mail and I’ll be e-mailing you things. When you buy with all these different corporations, they have your e-mail [addresses], but the artist never gets it.
“[With] Prisoner of Conscious, the focus was definitely to show people, musically, you like my music because I make great music,” Kweli added. “The focus of Gravitas is definitely lyrics and me telling my story. Prisoner of Conscious was like, ‘I’m making songs.’ I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m making this song. Let’s see what this song is about. Here’s a song with Miguel…’ I’m proud of Prisoner of Conscious. I worked on it for four years. It was the album I wanted to make. But immediately after I finished making it, I felt the need to start writing. …This is for fans of mine who already know that I’m dope musically. They just want to hear dope lyrics. So this album is for them.”
Along with this album, Kweli is also launching Javotti Radio, a signature radio station with Radionomy, a company that allows artists to create radio stations their fans can listen to.
“It’s been great, Javotti Radio and Radionomy,” Kweli said. “It’s been a good thing. I’ve been on the tour. I’ve been on [Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’] ‘Heist Tour’ and trying to finish the album at the same time. So, I haven’t had the chance to get into programming Javotti Radio in the way that I would. There’s so much more I could be doing with it. But right now, it’s just a great radio station. Say your music palette doesn’t just include one thing. Some people just listen to battle rap. Some people just listen to ratchet-ass music. But say you listen to all that. Say you like Fleetwood Mac. Say you like UGK. Say you like Bilal. If you like all those things, and you give them all equal space in your soul and your heart, than Javotti Radio is perfect for you. It’s just a great listen. But it will get better. It’s just a great listen. It’s a bunch of great songs being played on it. I know because I hand-picked them. I didn’t hand-pick every song, but I definitely hand-picked every artist that is on there. Once I get some more down time, which I don’t know when that’s going to be, but once I do get some more down time, I’m going to program some more, have some mix shows or interviews, podcasts, all that.”
