About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

The title says it all. Talib Kweli, the Brooklyn-bred wordsmith urges the hip-hop community ?to get into it and get involved." over .

Pros

• Kweli?s lyrical strength is felt
• He rhymes with the hunger of a new-comer and the passion of a veteran
• A positive and intelligent message
• A bouncy beat that complements the song

Cons

• Nope!

Description

• ?Listen!!!? is the lead single from Talib Kweli?s upcoming Eardrum LP

• The song was produced by fellow New Yorker K1 a.k.a. Kwamé
• An excellent jam back-packers, mainstream listeners and everyone else who?ll give it a ?listen.?

Guide Review - Talib Kweli - Listen (Blacksmith / Warner Bros.)

Following in his tradition of dropping fun and intellectually clever first singles (Quality?s ?Get By? and The Beautiful Struggle?s ?I Try?), Talib Kweli dishes out some more edutainment with ?Listen!!!?, and he certainly delivers. ?Loud as a whisper? and ?quiet as a lion?s roar?, Kweli examines societal problems such as poverty, the general lack of education and leadership, as well as hypocrisy in the music industry: ?back in the days we all used to LISTEN / now sh*t is so wack nobody LISTEN / to that real hip-hop, y?all.?

Talib Kweli, the self-proclaimed ?king of the bars?, sounds fresh over this well-suited beat with an old-school feel, and quite frankly, it?s quite hard NOT to listen.