Talib Kweli Rejoices At Demise Of Bling Bling

Though Talib Kweli is discouraged by marketing strategies that rely upon cookie-cutter formulas, he remains encouraged that real-life aspects are seeping back into hip-hop and forcing labels to rethink bling bling and gangsta imagery. “When you keep it so real that all you’re doing is killing people, all you’re doing is selling drugs, all you’re doing is riding around on 24s, that’s not reality anymore,” Kweli told MTV News. “It becomes a caricature of itself, it eats itself. It’s like, ‘OK, now I don’t believe you anymore.’ Before I didn’t believe MC Hammer — ‘It’s all good and let’s just dance’ — and now I don’t believe you. And so when that happens, the real true artists are going to, once again, keep it real and express the realities of their lives, whether it’s a Nas or a Snoop or a Jay-Z or an Eminem.” Read more.