Kweli's 'struggle' a success

In his sophomore album, Beautiful Struggle, Kweli has decided to show us all facets of his personality. These include, but are not limited to, the romantic, the political/non-political, the truthful and the angry. \nAfter the success of his first album, Quality, Kweli again turned to Kanye West to produce his first single, "I Try," a collaboration with Mary J. Blige. Listeners will find similarities to his hit "Get By," probably because West produced that track as well, and it seems obvious that for the single he was going for the same effect. \nOne might be fooled into thinking that Kweli is trying to go mainstream once they look at the list of producers on this album, which include Kanye West, Just Blaze and the Neptunes. This isn't the case because of the fact that Kweli has arranged 13 very eclectic and different songs that aren't similar to anything you'd hear on the radio nowadays. The only problem with this is that it confuses the listener. \nWhile a few songs contain the emotion and strong lyrics we're used to from the rapper, other songs leave us mildly confused, if not turned off. An example of this is a track featuring Res called "We Got the Beat," which is mix of varying styles of music that result in Kweli rapping on what sounds like an annoying pop beat. The beat makes it difficult to tune into anything he's saying. \nHis experimentation on other tracks is more successful. In "Around My Way," featuring John Legend, Kweli samples a Police track ("Every Little Thing She Does is Magic") and makes it work. He brings back Reflection Eternal collaborator Hi-Tek for the hard-hitting tracks such as "Back Up Offa Me," "Broken Glass" and "Beautiful Struggle." These all sound like the Kweli that we are used to. The lyrics make you want to listen closely, and the beat works well. \nHis romantic side shines through on "Never Been in Love" and "We Know," while "Black Girl Pain" is probably the most heartfelt and intimate song on the whole album because it's for his daughter and makes references to her childhood and the trials she'll face growing up black. Although it's a well-crafted album, and contains its share of tracks that fans of Kweli would enjoy, it's still lacking something that Quality and Reflection Eternal's Train of Thought had.