Talib Kweli’s career-spanning show earns roars of approval at the Echoplex

Andrew Veeder on
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With DJ Spinna on the 1s and 2s, Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli took the stage at the Echoplex for the first time to a roar of applause and a sea of smart phones in the air, launching into a career-spanning set with his near-breathless flow.

He breezed through material including his 1998 Black Star album with Mos Def/Yaslin Bey, the 2000 Reflection Eternal album with Hi-Tek, 2002’s “Quality,” 2007’s “Eardrum,” 2011’s “Gutter Rainbows” and 2013’s “Prisoner of Conscious,” while focusing on his latest release, “Gravitas.”

Kweli is a captivating presence on the microphone, articulate and commanding, be it spitting political rhymes about injustice, or leading a call-and-response of “keep ’em dancing” during his track “The Blast,” or amping the crowd up with his verse from Kanye West’s “Get ‘Em High.” Kweli closed the night with a Z-Trip mash-up of the original Nina Simone “Sinnerman” sample and led the audience in clapping out the beat before jumping into his smash hit “Get By.”

Beat maker Knxwledge opened up the bill, patching together a collage of grimy underground percussion fused with shiny jazz and soul samples. His set had the feel of Madlib and DJ Premier, with some flourishes of trap, and the rhymes he plucked for use included rappers Danny Brown, Ghostface Killah, Mobb Deep, Nas and Pusha T. The crowd was steady nodding their heads to the beat, as Knxwledge bobbed his own along at double-time, queueing up the next sample on his laptop with a sly smile.

Florida-via-Brazil rapper Niko Is was up next, and, well, he did indeed do some rhyming. The huge curly mane spilling out from under his beanie and his fast-paced flow brought to mind Sideshow Bob and Sean Paul, respectively, as performed tracks from his album “Good Blood.” The bass and beats were cranked up to body reverberation levels, further muddling his hard-to-decipher vocals to the point where you could barely understand a fraction of what he was rapping about, if you were even inclined to figure it out.