Talib Kweli’s new album Ear Drum drops in stores this Tuesday and I must say it’s pretty hot.  Ear Drum almost made it into my Top 12 Most Anticipated Albums of the Summer list, but got dropped at the last minute.  Well, it definitely should have been on the list.  I guess I forgot how hot of an MC Kweli is.

For those of you not familiar with Talib Kweli, you may remember his hit a few years back, the Kanye West-produced “Get By” — check track 24 on Kanye’s Producer Spotlight.  Kweli also had a minor hit with Mary J. Blige called “I Try”.  At any rate, if you haven’t heard of Talib Kweli, definitely check this out.  His style runs along the same lines as Common, Mos Def.

Guest appearances on the album include UGK, Raheem DeVaughn, Kanye West, Norah Jones, Lyfe Jennings, Musiq Soulchild, KRS-One, and Justin Timberlake.  With 20 tracks on this CD and productions by Kanye, will.i.am, Just Blaze, Hi-Tek, Madlib and Pete Rock; this is a must-have in any hip hop head’s CD collection!

1. “Everything Man” - produced by Madlib (10/10) - Talib Kweli starts the CD out right with this hot song from Madlib.  I’m still working on finding the samples used on this album, but I gotta know where Mablib got the sample for this song from.  I love it!!  This track is HOT!  I love how Kweli reintroduces himself into the scene by having people speak over the track on when they first heard him.
2. “NY Weather Report” - produced by Nick Speed (9/10) - blending right from “Everything Man”, Kweli raps about his hometown New York City.  This track keeps up the pace from where the last track left off and also features scratching by DJ Jazzy Jeff.
3. “Hostile Gospel, Pt. 1 (Deliver Us) (feat. MeLa Machinko)” - produced by Just Blaze (9/10) - I was a little surprised by this track; it doesn’t sound like your regular Just Blaze production.  That’s neither a good or a bad thing, just an observation.  I love Just Blaze and he definitely gives us fire here.  The beat and the piano are tight.  Just Blaze is definitely showing his mature side here.
4. “Say Something (feat. Jean Grae)” - produced by will.i.am (10/10) - WOW, I got chills when I first heard this track.  If I could give this one a 20/10 I would.  This is the hottest track on the album, by far!!  I absolutely LOVE the intro with the horns — CRAZY!  Will.i.am is really showing his skills in the hip hop game lately and is slowly becoming one of my favorites.  And this chick, Jean Grae, has to be one of the hottest female rappers I’ve heard in a while!  Talk sh*t now!!!
5. “Country Cousins (feat. UGK & Raheem DeVaughn)” - produced by A Kid Called Roots (10/10) - man, this track is hot too!  Talib and Raheem did a track for UGK’s new album, so I guess they decided to repay the favor.  I’m glad they did; their chemistry is sweet!  Again, I need to find the sample credits.  This almost sounds like a sample from Earth Wind & Fire.
6. “Holy Moly” - produced by Pete Rock (8/10) - nice to hear Pete Rock doing his thing.  This is a hot beat; gotta know where he got the sample from.  I had to bump it down and the beat got a little repetitive and lost my interest about halfway in.  But this track is only two minutes long.  Still not bad though.
7. “Eat to Live” - produced by Madlib (10/10) - damn, Madlib’s got some skills!  This is another hot track.  Supposedly Kweli & Madlib did a whole album together, released at the beginning of the year called Liberation.  I’m gonna have to check that out.
8. “In The Mood (feat. Kanye West & Roy Ayers)” - produced by Kanye West (10/10) - Kanye does it again!  Another hot track!  This song was an old feel to it.  Sounds like the sample was lifted from an old 1930s song.  Definitely a new direction for Kanye.  Loving his verse too — “Real titties like Tootie” — LOL!
9. “Soon The New Day (feat. Norah Jones)” - produced by Madlib (10/10) - another HOT Madlib production!  Damn, the way this album is going, I’m gonna have to come up with different levels of 10.  Norah Jones adds some nice vocals to this track.
10. “Give ‘Em Hell (feat. Coi Mattison & Lyfe Jennings)” - produced by Terrace Martin (9/10) - interesting song, with interesting lyrics.  Kweli gives us a little lesson in religion here.  Muslims, Christians, and Jews — they’re all represented here.  Nice vocals by Coi & Lyfe too!  Haven’t heard of Terrace Martin before, but the track is hot.  I like how he incorporated the saxophone into the sound.  Has almost a jazz/blue feel to it.
11. “More Or Less (feat. Dion)” - produced by Hi-Tek (7/10) - normally I like a good Hi-Tek production, but I’m not feeling this track all that much.  It’s not too bad, but it sounds like Hi-Tek gave Kweli a leftover track.  Knowing these two’s history, they could have done way better than this.  Supposedly this was released as the second single earlier this year.  I can see why I hadn’t heard of it.
12. “Stay Around” - produced by Pete Rock (10/10) - glad Pete Rock got another shot on the album.  This is a fun number and really showcases both Pete Rock and Talib Kweli’s skills.
13. “Hot Thing (feat. will.i.am)” - produced by will.i.am (10/10) - man, will.i.am cannot do any wrong!  This track is fire!  This is the third and latest sing from Ear Drum.  They just finished shooting the video.  I hope it gets some play so people will see how great of an album this it.  The sample on this song sounds familiar; I just can’t place it though.
14. “Space Fruit (Interlude)” - performed by Sa-Ra (5/10) - this is an interesting interlude.  Sa-Ra, or Sa-Ra Creative Partners, is a hip hop group that have done work with Jurassic 5 and Pharoahe Monch.  Guess Talib likes them so much, he wanted to feature them on his album.  Glad it’s only an interlude though — not really felling it.
15. “The Perfect Beat (feat. KRS-One)” - produced by Swiff D (7/10) - I like KRS-One, but I wasn’t too sure this was him when I first heard this track.  I don’t know — something about this track just doesn’t sound right.  If KRS hadn’t of shouted his name in the beginning of the track, I never would have guessed.  The track started out nice, I wish they would have kept up the tempo of the beat.
16. “Oh My Stars (feat. Musiq Soulchild)” - produced by DJ Khalil (9/10) - man, give the kid rapping at the start of the track some props!  That was pretty hot.  I’ve heard a few productions from Khalil, but nothing like this.  This track has a nice jazz feel to it and Musiq definitely adds to the song.
17. “Listen!!!” - produced by Kwame (9/10) - this was the first single from this album.  You may have heard it back at the beginning of the year.  I think I remember seeing the video on VH1 Soul back in January.  Nice track.  Kwame gives us some nice sounds on this complicated beat.  There’s a lot going on in this track.  Lots of flute.
18. “Go With Us (feat. Strong Arm Steady)” - produced by E-Jones (9/10) - the last three sounds listed here are all bonus tracks.  This is a tight track.  Has a little different feel from the rest of the album, but I like it.  Strong Arm Steady is a group newly signed to Kweli’s Blacksmith Records and used to include Xzibit in its member lineup.
19. “Hostile Gospel, Pt. 2 (Deliver Me) (feat. Sizzla)” - produced by DJ Khalil (8/10) - this is sort of a remix to the track we heard earlier from Just Blaze.  Pretty much has the same vibe, but it’s totally different.  DJ Khalil did a good job on this track.  It could have done without Sizzla though, but I see what Kweli was doing here.  He wanted a Rasta feel to the song, but Sizzla is a little annoying to me.  Could grow on me through.
20. “The Nature (feat. Justin Timberlake)” - produced by Justin Timberlake (9/10) - when I heard JT was doing a track for Kweli, I was interested in hearing how it would turn out.  Rumors are going around that Timbaland and Danja produced this one, but after first listen I knew it wasn’t Tim.  It’s a nice track and you can tell JT had some influence from Timbaland and Danja.  Not sure if I’m feeling his vocals on the chorus though.  The ending vocals are cool though.  Ooooh, and there’s a beat switch in the last 30 seconds of the song — love that!  Nice ending to a great album.

Runtime: 1 hour 18 minutes
Overall score:  9/10

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