There are 50,000 rappers that we wish Twitter would lock out of their accounts and they chose to go messing with one of the most prolific voices for social justice in the genre. Since his 1998 debut as one half of Black Star, Talib Kweli has repped Brooklyn and African people to the fullest with music that grooves you and rhymes that spark thought provocative discussion. But he is not just an on-the-album prophet rapping about issues that he can afford to look past. He takes his activism to the people in the most direct way possible in 2017.
He tweets.
And he does just tweet his opinion but he informs, calls people out and stands around to engage those who have a problem with whatever he says. He is right there engaging with power, confidence and strength… but he is not a bully.
But Twitter is acting like a bully.
A few days ago, Kweli decided to called out the social media site for locking him out of his account after he and a Texas lawyer went to war with words on their platform. Said attorney spouted vulgarities and threats to the Brooklyn rapper. Under the user name @RealJLVD, this attorney threatened Kweli and others with violence and racist and homophobic language . In response to this, Kweli posted Twitter the @RealJLVD’s address which he found on the State Bar of Texas website. The account for @RealJKVD has been suspended.
At his current residency at The Blue Note in The Village, the “Just To Get By” rapper blasted Twitter and the lawyer:
But the night was not just serious activism and protest, he spit fire with his rhymes watering everyone’s palate for his album about to drop next week.