Jemele Hill and Talib Kweli touch on Detroit hip-hop, Donald Trump, and more.
Talib Kweli has settled nicely into the role OG. Like athletes taking to the broadcast booth, many older rappers have gravitated toward the podcast world, with Talib’s “People’s Party” emerging as a result. On today’s episode, the Quality rapper brought in esteemed journalist Jemele Hill, who formerly worked on ESPN before moving to The Atlantic. You might remember her facing controversy after calling Donald Trump a white supremacist on Twitter, and it wasn’t long before she parted ways with the sporting giant.
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Today, Hill and Kweli opened up about a variety topics, including the impact Detroit’s local hip-hop scene had on her journalism career. Citing it as a “tough city,” Talib reflects on how that quality is mirrored in the music. “Royce, Fat Cat, Slum Village, Eminem and them, the Detroit hip-hop scene was very volatile,” he explains. “Those guys used to fight all the time. Fight each other, shoot at each other. All that.” Jemele laughs, as Talib continues. “We was watching old Trick Trick videos…But I gotta shout out all the guys I just mentioned, cause now they’re all friends.”
Hill springboards f his point, saying “the success Big Sean brought a lot attention to Detroit, but it was a city that was ten…people took a shit on it, all the time. The only time I used to see Detroit on the National News was when something bad happened, or once a year when they released the murder rate and ranked them by city. We were always in the top three. They would always talk about how Detroit was basically the armpit the country. What happens it, people from Detroit, we not only stick tight together and stick up for each other, but you get a chip on your shoulder.”