Videos showing Talib Kweli angry and seemingly about to fight another man in a club have been circulating the net recently. SOHH caught up with the Brooklyn rapper yesterday (April 22) to get the play by play on exactly what went down.
"Often people look at hip-hop like we're not professionals because they don't have respect for the music," he told SOHH.
That's what Kweli said happened at the recent Hartford, CT. club concert, where he performs a few times a year. He'd never had a problem there before, but the trouble he had this particular night he said isn't new. Kweli said it's about respect.
The rapper didn't know of any time restraints before he took the stage, but said he was asked to cut the show short in the middle of his set.
"They're flashing lights and sh*t like, 'you gotta cut the set'," he said. "So I was on the mic like, 'f*ck it, I'm not cutting sh*t.' Then I said, 'nah, I'm just playin'."
Kweli said he immediately turned to his DJ and directed him to cut to the last song, "Get By," effectively cutting what would have been 30 more minutes of his performance down to five.
"As I'm doin 'Get By,' the sound man is on the mic talking to me while I'm performing like, 'you gotta end, you gotta end.' A clear level of disrespect," Kweli said. "If I had been another type of artist he wouldn't have done that. He just did it cause I'm just some n*gga rappin."
When the sound man came on stage, Kweli said he wanted to fight him.
"I got real heated because it just started dawning on me that he don't give a f*ck at all about what I do for a living," Kweli said. "He has no respect for what I'm doing on this stage or the fact that these people are here to see me, or the fact that I'm doin this show for free."
The concert was a radio promotion show.
"I wanted to fight him but I had to calm down and say, 'OK, I have to be a more responsible person.' I did allow myself to get more upset than I needed to get," Kweli admitted. "I started walking toward him but then I had to catch myself like, what am I gonna fight the sound man on stage? I'ma look like Trey Songz or somebody."
Kweli said he's over the whole thing now, and was actually laughing about it five minutes later. He will perform at the club again and he only blames the sound guy for the mix up, though he said he doesn't really want the worker reprimanded.
"If I see him again, he'll probably get cussed out," Kweli said. "That's about it."
Talib Kweli Almost Comes To Blows With Soundman
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