ΓÇ£Never question my relevance/manifesting on elements/take hip-hop and develop it/by injecting intelligence." - Reflection Eternal - "The Express"
With hip-hop so divided into competing factions, each with its own parochial rules and regulations, it's become hard for new artists simply to walk in and focus on making their music artistically intelligent and socially relevant. But Talib Kweli, aka the Eternalist, (24) and DJ Hi-Tek (Tony Cottrell, 24), walk forth together as Reflection Eternal with no fear, no compromise. TheyΓÇÖre as creative as they are conscious, as moving as they are meditative.
"Reflection Eternal means we're the reflection of those who came before us," says Hi-Tek, explaining the group's name. Both credit their families as a source of inspiration and the countless numbers of musicians and artists who have toiled before them. Indeed, in their music, you can hear Reflection Eternal tread a trail carved by everyone, from poets like Amiri Baraka and Maya Angelou to soul icons like Bobby Womack and Wilson Pickett, and hip-hop visionaries like Common Sense and De La Soul.
The roots of Reflection Eternal date back to 1994, when Kweli, then a young Brooklynite, visited Cincinnati, Ohio. A chance encounter led him to meet DJ Hi-Tek, producer for Cincinnati's hip-hop group Mood. With Kweli dropping verses on several songs from Mood's 1997 album Doom, a partnership between the two was born. "I used to take the Greyhound bus to Cincinnati every weekend, or Hi-Tek would take the bus into New York, and we'd just start recording songs," recalls Kweli. "This kid from Cincinnati really blew me away. Hi-Tek's beats just had a sound to them: a carefree, laid-back feel that was still hard. The drums were crackin', the bass was thumpin'. It was right up my alley." Hi-Tek was similarly impressed: "The way Kweli used his voice, he was like an instrument to the track."
Formed together as Reflection Eternal, the two came into public view in 1997 when Rawkus Records helped release "Fortified Live," an instant classic that bumped Hi-Tek's funk-ified reggae riddims and cameos by Mos Def and Da Bush Babees' Mr. Man. Backed by the jazzy, contemplative "2000 Seasons," "Fortified LiveΓÇ¥ captured Reflection Eternal in their breakout moment as sons of the new school with both mature mind-states and b-boy flair.
Reflection Eternal led to the epochal collaboration between Talib Kweli and Mos Def for 1998's Black Star project, one of the most critically lauded albums of the year. Proving that conscious lyricism could still flourish in the hour of chaos, Black Star introduced Kweli and Mos as two of hip-hop's most exciting new talents.
With Reflection EternalΓÇÖs upcoming debut LP Train Of Thought, Kweli and Hi-Tek forge ahead even further. "A lot of albums I listen to don't have any train of thought. They're just songs strung together to represent certain regions, but no real stream of consciousness in the music. This album has some idea, some awareness of what's going on," explains Kweli. Across its 14 songs, the album covers everything from straight, in-your-face braggadocio ("Express") to incisive social commentaries ("Good Mourning") and wistful love paeans ("Love"), not to mention vital, bouncy club bangers ("Move Somethin').
Watch for Reflection Eternal as they set out to give hip-hop a long-overdue attitude adjustment.
