Talib Kweli Live at Tripod

“Everybody get your hands up!” orders Talib Kweli and the crowd at Tripod don’t need to be told twice. Dublin may not be Brooklyn, New York but hey, perhaps the Irish really are the blacks of Europe and Dubliners the blacks of Ireland. Or maybe as Kweli himself says, it’s a case of “white kids wishin’ they black kids, and wanna talk like rappers. It’s all backwards, it’s identity crisis.” Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter – he’s a master rapper, so we’ll do as we’re told. Still, he’s not about to alienate us either. “Can I play some more from Eardrum?” he asks and when the crowd respond eagerly, he launches into a blistering version of ‘Hostile Gospel (Part 1)’.

Kweli is a rapper with a political conscience, which means that despite the success of 2007’s aforementioned Eardrum, he’s not nearly as big or famous as many of his blinging gangsta brethren. But he knows that while his socio-political treaties may have attracted a good deal of his fans, it’s a Saturday night and we’re here to have a good time too – he has to be an entertainer as well as an educator. ‘Hot Thing’, produced with will.i.am, goes down a storm, as does Kweli’s take on Bob Marley’s ‘Jamming’ before he takes it down a notch with ‘Never Been In Love Before’.
“This is work for me,” he jokes and we all laugh. He’s having a good time. We’re having a good time. Job done.