Talib Kweli Points Out That One of His Major Features Was On the Wrong Part of the Beat (Video)

Beyond his extensive solo, Black Star, Idle Warship, and Reflection Eternal catalog, Talib Kweli’s career has been decorated with poignant feature appearances. The Brooklyn, New York MC appeared on notable releases such as UGK’s #1-charting Underground Kingz and Pharoahe Monch’s critically-acclaimed P.T.S.D. However, Kweli garnered a Grammy Award for his work on Kanye West’s debut album, The College Dropout. On that 2004 release, alongside ‘Ye and Common, Talib rapped on a double-platinum hallmark, care of “Get ‘Em High.” In a new interview with VladTV, the MC who just released free album, Fuck The Money, noted that his most widespread appearance is, actually, on the wrong part of the beat on which he recorded it.

“ProTools was still a relatively new thing for engineers [at that time],” contextualizes Talib Kweli, who was then a major label artist care of Rawkus/Geffen Records. “Flying things around, digitally—like vocals, through ProTools was still something people weren’t proficient at. I suppose, when I my vocals from Norway, or wherever I recorded at, to Kanye [West], wherever he was at—whether it was his fault, or my engineer’s fault, or his engineer’s fault, I have no clue. Somehow, when he got it, it was placed on the wrong part of the beat.” More than a decade later, Talib possibly attributes the so-called mistake to creativity. “But he’s a musical genius. It was a beautiful mistake. It fit, for him. It didn’t make sense for me the first few months. Because I knew how I laid it, and it sounded off to me. But people liked it, and I had to learn how to appreciate it.”

Listen to “Get ‘Em High” again. What do you think? Mistake, or intent?

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