'Quality'Conscious

Talib Kweli wants you to stay in school.\nBut if, like Kweli, you find you've missed out on what's going on in the real world, there's another education out there. \n"I left NYU to get a real-life education," he said. "I'm not suggesting that anyone drop out, but (go to school) for you, not for your parents, not to learn how to get up in the morning and conform. \n"Everyone has a natural inclination toward knowledge. Don't let the system beat it out of you." \nYet, for a college dropout, he is obviously well educated.\nKweli spoke at Sunday's IU National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's First Annual Freedom Fund Banquet. For the banquet's keynote address, Kweli spoke on social issues ranging from corporate domination of media, inner city education and AIDS education in Africa. He used the forum to implore people to continue to educate themselves and then use that knowledge for good, breaking stereotypes and injustices.\n"I have an opportunity to reach people on a more personal level," Kweli said. He added that he thought it was important to understand what hip-hop is.\n"Hip-hop is a folk music," he said. "Media perception of hip-hop is different (than what hip-hop really is)." During the convention, Kweli was first and foremost an activist, taking well informed verbal shots at many things, including the Reagan administration and Interscope Records.\nBut the critically-acclaimed rapper remained positive throughout, talking up his family and friends, including LOX rapper Styles P and former Black Star compatriots Mos Def and DJ Hi Tek. \nKweli's particular beef with Interscope stems from their ownership of Rawkus, Kweli's original record label. Interscope folded Rawkus into the larger label, essentially ending Kweli's personal relationship with his producers. \nHis disaffected view of mainstream record companies has led him to want out of his current deal with Interscope. When asked about keeping "conscious rappers" like him on the forefront of music, Kweli felt fans should question the mainstream.\n"50 Cent is concerned with your pocketbooks," he said. "Record companies are concerned with your pocketbooks. If you depend on corporations to tell you what's good, you're going to be let down."\nWhen discussing the current state of hip-hop, Kweli's description of the underground music scene was significantly more diverse than the gangsta style that dominates the mainstream charts like "MTV2 Hip-Hop Countdown." He told of artists who were actively against the typically misogynistic, homophobic or homicidal lyrics of such rap.\nKweli believes that rappers and DJs who rap and spin against the grain don't fit the media-driven image of hip-hop. He would like to see members of the hip-hop community actively "participate in spreading knowledge."\n"Corporations that try to sell to our kids spend a lot of time researching how they can better sell things," Kweli said. "If we're going to be serious about uplifting our people, we have to figure out how we can relate."\nHip-hop is that avenue, he claimed. \nKweli informed the convention hosts that he was mildly offended by the use of the word "colored" in NAACP. But he stresses that it is a mild point, and he recognizes the acronym has historical roots.\nBut the point was raised, he said, to exemplify the necessity of reaching out to black youths through hip-hop.\n"These kids, they're not listening to their teachers, their parents -- they're listening to hip-hop," he said. "They look up to these artists." \nFor all his concern for social issues, Kweli considers entertainment his primary interest.\n"The entertainment comes first," he said. "If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't matter what I say. Music can be tough because you've got to sell yourself and it can feel like selling your soul"