For the first time since COVID, Talib Kweli returned to the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) to headline his own concert for a special occasion. The veteran emcee from Brooklyn, New York has a long history of touring, performing plenty of shows in the GTA throughout his near 30-year career in a wide range of settings, from intimate nightclubs like The Rockpile or The Phoenix, to outdoor festivals in Dundas Square, and even rocking the halftime show at a Raptors playoff game once. While Toronto Hip-Hop heads have had plenty of times to see Talib Kweli perform live, it’s been a few years since we last got to see him really headline a show with a full setlist, and even for longtime fans who’ve seen him many times before, this performance at The Living Arts Centre in downtown Mississauga would be a unique one.

Talib Kweli is an artist who’s experienced different levels of fame throughout his career, maintaining a consistent presence in the underground while occasionally dropping major hits, most notably in the late ’90s and early 2000s. In recent years, navigating through the ever-shifting landscape that is the music industry, Talib Kweli has helped redefine the meaning of “underground” in the age of digital streaming, linking up with the platform Luminary to exclusively release some of his latest albums (2022’s No Fear of Time with Yasiin Bey as the group Black Star and 2023’s Liberation 2 with Madlib) in deals that are more lucrative for the artists but limiting to the fans’ ability to access the music. Finding Talib Kweli’s newest music is almost like finding a hidden gem at a record store, except it’s all online and you only know it exists if you actively follow the artist. Even as a longtime fan myself who’s listened to nearly every album, I didn’t have anything in the social media algorithms pointing me to Kweli’s newest release, 2024’s The Confidence of Knowing, until the week of this concert, and it happens to be a wider release on all common streaming platforms.

Despite the recent shift in Talib Kweli’s musical output, he still has 20+ year-old classics that will have fans filling up a room to see him no matter where he tours, whether its for his work as a solo artist, or his acclaimed collabs with the groups Black Star or Reflection Eternal. This show in Mississauga would be unlike any other that fans in the GTA have seen, taking place at The Living Arts Centre, which is more known for hosting local symphonies, musicals and plays rather than Hip-Hop concerts. There’s an elevated sense of class walking into this building compared to most Hip-Hop nightclubs, and you had to wonder how Talib Kweli would bring that raw Hip-Hop energy to a more formal setting like this. Unlike most clubs where you can easily get a drink while still being able to see what’s happening on stage, this was a theatre setting with the bar situated out in the lobby, and many fans congregated there while we waited for the main event to start.

Opening up the show would be local DJ Andre905, who would spin some classic ’90s Hip-Hop and also paid tribute to the recently deceased Toronto Hip-Hop icon, Bishop Brigante, playing his song “About 2 Change” to close out his set. After a short intermission, the curtain would lift to reveal a setup for an entire live band, and DJ/producer J. Rawls would set up behind the turntables to get the crowd warmed up with some more ’90s classics. J. Rawls is of course known for producing a few tracks on the classic 1998 album Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, including the hit “Brown Skin Lady,” and would go on to become a professor at Ohio University before making a major return to music by producing Talib Kweli’s latest solo album, The Confidence of Knowing, in its entirety. DJing a Hip-Hop show seemed second nature to J. Rawls, as he got the fans out of their seats and dancing before the main event started.

Joining J. Rawls on stage would be The Liquid Crystal Project, which is a band consisting of a drummer, bass guitar player, saxophone player, and two keyboard players. What made this show a special occasion was that while this band has played with Talib Kweli in-studio when recording his albums, this would be their first time ever performing with him on stage in front of a crowd. For many of the fans, this would also be a rare occasion to see Talib Kweli backed by a live band as opposed to the traditional MC-DJ setup. The Liquid Crystal Project would set the tone by playing a jazzy instrumental with the documentary film The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, which Talib Kweli lends his voice to, playing on repeat on the jumbo screen behind them. The crowd got up and cheered as Kweli himself made his way across the stage, joining the band by spitting his verse from the obscure Black Star track “Tribute” to set things off.

The crowd would get hype and wave their hands as Talib Kweli dove right into some Train of Thought cuts for the day-one Reflection Eternal fans, directing everyone to get up with “This Means You” and rocking the fan-favourite “Down For The Count” with the live instrumentation adding extra energy to the beat. Having The Liquid Crystal Project backing him allowed Kweli to add a lot more improvisation into his setlist, as the band played an interpolation of The Beatnuts’ “Off The Books” for him to spit a freestyle to, and they’d play a dope rendition of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” for Kweli to cover. Talib Kweli would proudly proclaim he’s from Brooklyn, New York as he delivered a passionate cover of one of the many anthems to come out of his hometown.

Keeping up the theme of paying tribute to other legends throughout his setlist, Talib Kweli followed up a performance of his ’07 single “Hot Thing” with a remix/freestyle over the band’s cover of Dr. Dre & Snoop Dogg’s “The Next Episode,” replacing Snoop’s lyrics with the perfectly placed “la-da-da-da-dah, it’s Talib Kweli!” After the hype remix, the band would continue with a tribute to J Dilla, with Kweli spitting his raps from the Train of Thought cut “Love Language” over the alternate Dilla production. The laidback vibes would continue as Kweli and the band did yet another tribute to a recently passed legend, Roy Ayers, getting the stage lights to turn yellow as the crowd sang along to the smooth ’70s classic “Everybody Loves The Sunshine.” Nothing but feel-good vibes all around.

Continuing to veer away from the predictable, Talib Kweli next took a moment to introduce each individual member of The Liquid Crystal Project, and let the band play one of their own original instrumentals. He’d use this alternate production to perform the rapid-fire “Nat Turner” off of his Liberation 2 album with Madlib, and would step to the side as each member of the band performed a solo on their instrument. After letting the band shine, it was next time to show love to the DJ, as J. Rawls got into a segment spinning some Reggae classics, including Junior Reid’s “One Blood,” Sister Nancy’s “Bam Bam,” Dawn Penn’s “You Don’t Love Me,” and Bob Marley’s “Is This Love,” getting the crowd to sing along to that last one. Talib would speak on Reggae’s influence on Hip-Hop music, and would next get into an epic segment performing his verses from Black Star’s own Reggae-influenced production, “Definition.”

The crowd was turned all the way up for “Definition,” and stayed hyped as Kweli and J. Rawls transitioned the track into “RE: Definition” just as it flows in sequence on the Black Star album, except Kweli spit his rapid-fire verse acapella, nailing it word for word. The Black Star segment continued but with a twist, as Kweli wanted to do yet another tribute, this time to A Tribe Called Quest, and so he performed his track “K.O.S. (Determination)” over the beat from Tribe’s classic “Check The Rhime.” The mash-up with the alternate beat added a ton of energy to the otherwise laid-back track, and the crowd was hyped to see Kweli and the band perform it the way they did.

Keeping the tributes going, Kweli dedicated the next song to Nina Simone and got the crowd to join in for a soul clap to “Sinnerman.” The sharp listeners in the crowd knew where this was going, with fans getting more and more excited as they realized they were vibing to the song sampled to create the beat for Talib Kweli’s biggest hit, “Get By.” When that Kanye West-produced beat finally dropped, it sounded all the more epic with the live keys playing it out, and the crowd was all-in when Talib got to the hook, getting everyone to sing along and replace the drums with claps towards the end of the song. With this being his biggest hit, it made sense that Talib and the band closed out the setlist with this track, but the crowd wanted to hear more, chanting for an encore.

J. Rawls eventually returned to the stage, gesturing to the crowd to get loud, and he’d be followed by the rest of the band and Talib Kweli himself. Surprisingly, Talib hadn’t performed any songs off of his new album with J. Rawls thus far, but he’d use this opportunity of returning to the stage to promote the album while shouting out the entire Native Tongues posse. This would of course lead into a high-energy performance of one of the highlights of the new album, “Native Sons,” that has Talib spitting fire verses over a Tribe/De La Soul-inspired beat. That would be the only new joint of the entire evening though, as Talib closed out the evening with a couple throwbacks, performing a cover of Yasiin Bey (f/k/a Mos Def)’s “Umi Says,” followed by a Reflection Eternal classic, “The Blast.” The saxophone especially fit well on this closing track, filling in the sung adlibs throughout the verses.

Overall, this was a fun evening seeing Talib Kweli bring his brand of raw, conscious, and uplifting Hip-Hop to The Living Arts Centre. Despite the theatre setting, the crowd was still turned up and out of their seats for most of the show, and it turned out to be the perfect setting for Talib Kweli, J. Rawls and The Liquid Crystal Project to experiment for their first time on stage together. The performance was definitely raw and unpredictable, as they brought new energy to classic songs not only by adding the live instrumentation, but also by having Kweli perform over alternate beats that you wouldn’t expect. A lot of Talib Kweli’s music sounds like it’s designed to be played by live instruments, and so my only gripe was not seeing more of his own songs get performed. It was surprising seeing them skip over the J. Rawls-produced classic “Brown Skin Lady,” and other tracks throughout Talib’s long discography like “I Try,” “Say Something,” “New Leaders” or “Rocket Ships” would have been dope to hear in this setting.

Nitpicking aside, Talib Kweli put on a highly curated setlist that paid tribute to several musical icons that he’s been influenced by while still performing his own classics. It was also cool seeing firsthand how Talib Kweli’s music transcends generations, with plenty of parents bringing their kids to see him perform. This was my first time seeing a Hip-Hop show at The Living Arts Centre, and it would be cool to see more of these kinds of performances here in Mississauga, where the parking is free and the drinks are cheaper than downtown Toronto.

Following this one-off show in Canada, Talib Kweli will be performing a few dates in California this month before heading to Australia in June. A full list of tour dates can be found here!

Check out this playlist of concert videos from all the times I’ve seen Talib Kweli perform live over the years!

Check out the SYpherSights Youtube channel for more concert videos.

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