Talib Kweli - Vibrate Higher: A Rap Story

Muthafuck the wagon, come join the band

Vibrate, vibrate higher

ANDR 3000, VIBRATE

This is not the truth. My perception is only one-third of this story. The truth will be known when Im gone. This is not a rags-to-riches story. This is not a story of how a little ghetto boy rises above all adversity to beat the odds and then eventually reconcile with his past. I have no interest in playing up how badass my childhood was; even if I did, there wouldnt be much to work with. Conventional wisdom about rappers is that we are rebels with a cause who constantly see red and express ourselves in coded rhymes that the establishment will never understand. The truth is that most rappers are supernerds. While we live at the top of the nerd food chain, we are, without a doubt, nerds who are good with words. We turn poetry into personality and nervous energy into swagger. Our need to be liked by everyone is why we use rhymes to try to explain what you are going thru and, ultimately, bring you closer to us. Hip-hop is the sound track for nerd-world domination.

This is not a rallying cry for real hip-hop, or a guidebook on how to be more conscious in the way you live. This is not a manifesto handed down from the tops of mountains. This is simply me, in all my glory, pain, splendor, and shame. This is about the people and the events that shaped me. These are stories about the places that raised me in equal measure with my parents. This is the revelation I have been running toward since I first put a sixteen-bar verse together. Writing this book has shown me what Ive always known but was either too scared or too proud to share anywhere outside the box that is a hip-hop song.

I have many vices, and I do not trust anyone who doesnt. I am insecure about my physical appearance, and I am fiercely competitive. I can be selfish, and like many great artists I am often driven by ego. I also realize that my story is inspiring. I am superaware of my place in this world and what I bring to it. I recognize my position as a connector of like-minded people, as a griot, as proof that a life of creating substantial entertainment can very much be reality. I know I am a great lyricist not because others say it but because of the time I have spent dedicated to my craft. I know it whether you do or not.

This is not a lie. The life of visionaries who create capital from ideas that spring from their ever-evolving minds is not a life for the weak. To be your own boss is bravery. This book is my warriors toast to us and those like us. For those who know you have to either put in or put out.

I never dreamed of being a conscious rapper for a living. I only wanted to be a great rapper. Before that, I wanted to be a marine biologist, then a baseball player. Standing in the outfield swatting away bugs during baseball practice, I realized music was my true calling. So many lyrics were running thru my head I could no longer focus on baseball. Hip-hops mix of music and poetry was too seductive to ignore. Hip-hop sank its teeth into me and never let go.

I was blessed to come of age at a time when making conscious hip-hop music was trendy. You could not be great and frivolous at the same time; your skill was intertwined with your ability to uplift people and spread information. This coincided with how I was raised, and if I did not have the foundation in my home, I would have discarded conscious hip-hop when the trend was over. This trend, as fleeting as it was, created some of the most indelible hip-hop recordings to date. Peoples music preferences have always been stuck in the decades they came of age in, whether it was the 1960s, 70s, or 80s. For me, it was the 90s.

Musicians use the word vibe a lot. Intuition helps artists feel the vibes in the room and play off them. You try to catch a vibe in the studio. You vibe at a concert. The word vibe is tossed around so often that the actual meaning of the word seems to have died; its become a clich. To vibrate is the action of vibe. In a literal sense, my job is to vibrate higher, or to vibrate on a higher level of consciousness. The definition of vibrate is to move or continue to move rapidly to and fro. As I find myself writing this book on planes, trains, and automobiles, I realize that I vibrate for a living. This must be why the shark is my favorite animal. Ever since I was a little boy, I have been fascinated with the fact that most sharks must constantly move to survive. They never sleep (in the way we do) because they need water flowing thru their gills at all times for oxygen.

We see light because of vibrations. Colors represent the vibration of waves at different frequencies. We also hear sounds because of vibrations. When you repeat a word over and over like a mantra, it is not just the meaning of the word that tattoos itself on your consciousness; it is also the vibration that emanates from the sound of the word. I experienced this firsthand on my first tour, the Spitkicker tour, with De La Soul, Common, Pharoahe Monch, and Biz Markie, in 2000. In the De La Soul song Stakes Is High, which samples James Browns Mind Power, Maceo Parker repeats the words vibe and vibration. So to introduce the song, all of us on the tour would join De La onstage and tell the crowd that when we said Vibe, we wanted them to say Vibration. We would reply, Stakes is high. I saw the effect our mantra had on the crowd. Every night we got them to vibrate higher.

Music arranges sound in a way that creates a higher vibration. We like listening to music because it allows us to see vibrations as if they were colors. Reggae artists often talk about vibration in their lyrics, and listening to reggae music is a very physical experience. The sound system, which is a crew of DJs who play reggae on their intricate set of equipment, is an attempt to increase the vibration for the listener. This sound system started in Jamaica in the 1960s and has evolved to todays sound systems that battle one another in what are known all over the world as sound clashes.

Bass instruments have a rich vibration that you feel in your midsection. This comes from the low register of the bass, and it is what makes you move your hips when it hits. The bass instruments used in the blues, jazz, rhythm and blues, and reggae have an even lower register than the electric bass preferred today. When you are aware of how the music affects the mind, body, and spirit, you realize its importance. It is a natural resource. It is as essential to us as the fossil fuels we wage war for control of. As musicians, it is imperative that we do our best. Its why Rakim said, Its a must that I bust any mic you handing me. Its why Andr 3000 said, Muthafuck the wagon, come join the band / Vibrate, vibrate higher. This word