- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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MojoIt is Kweli's diligently intelligent worldview, dextrous wordplay and often breathtaking flow that enrapture. [Jan 2005, p.96]
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So if some of the songs sound a little too catchy, it’s because they’re supposed to. Kweli’s trying to draw you in for something important.
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SpinWhile [Quality] cautiously courted the mainstream, he's made mass appeal Job No. 1 of late. [Oct 2004, p.112]
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While he's still the 21st century's answer to KRS-One, a rapper who is simultaneously intelligent and engaging, he needs to work with producers who are capable of sharing that vision with the masses in an equally engaging way. At times "The Beautiful Struggle" achieves this perfection combination, and at other times you're left loving the lyrics but lacking in headnodding dopeness.
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On The Beautiful Struggle, Kweli is savvy enough to play the rap industry's rigged game without sacrificing his soul or compromising his integrity.
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What frustrates about The Beautiful Struggle is that its flaws are purely musical: Kweli remains the fist-raising visionary who burned "The Manifesto" at the Lyricist Lounge with the same fiery pen that blazed "African Lounge".
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Entertainment WeeklySometimes the messages get as heavy as the sharp, thumping tracks, but a few jokes and guest spots... help lighten the enlightenment. [1 Oct 2004, p.73]
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"I Try," featuring Blige and produced by Kanye West, comes off as trying too hard to re-create Kweli's "Quality" hit, "Get By." The album works best when it goes with the flow.
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Between the hooks, he's as earnest as ever, but now he's dressed to party.
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VibeWell-crafted... offers a continuation of Quality's attempt to expand rap's topical terrain. [Oct 2004, p.185]
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BlenderThere's little unity of sound, but more than enough passion and unity of purpose. [Oct 2004, p.125]
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Q MagazineHe remains, ultimately, doom-laden. [Nov 2004, p.125]
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Kweli's default musical setting is that dreary soul-jazz hybrid that seems to come as standard with every socially conscious rapper, presumably in the belief that if the music bores the listener rigid, they will be forced to concentrate on the lyrics.
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It misses a little more than it hits.
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Sad that we have to talk about a member of Black Star making an album without a guiding ideal, dull production, and bad lyrics.
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Is cumbersome when it seems self-conscious, and works well when it seems effortless, when Talib ceases overcompensating with overproduction, diva guest spots, or repetitive political invective.
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Has many soaring moments and just as many ill-fated collisions.
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Kweli's generic sounds belie the so-called revolutionary front of his lyrics.
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Unfortunately, while Kweli’s message is spot-on, his delivery of that message is highly flawed.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 18 out of 24
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Mixed: 3 out of 24
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Negative: 3 out of 24
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EmahunnCDec 12, 2004
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VinceHOct 22, 2004
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FreemanJan 28, 2005