Talib Kweli and Zakiya Harris w/ Elephantine Rip Stern Grove

Artist talk w/ Talib Kweli at Stern Grove

Artist talk w/ Talib Kweli at Stern Grove

San Francisco 08-16-15 In the words of Ice Cube.. ‘Today was a good day’ Two steller acts took to the stage and seriously rocked it at Stern Grove Festival. Oakland’s own Zakiya Harris and Elephantine along with Talib Kweli set a new bar for throwing down and leaving the stage hot… They did not disappoint.

It was an incredible show that started off with Talib Kweli doing an artist talk to a packed house. Yours truly moderated as we covered all sorts  of topics ranging from the recent passing of NAACP chair and SNCC co-founder Julian Bond on down to the passing of his good friend Sean Price of the group Heltah Skeltah.

During our conversation, Talib talked about the competitive spirit of Sean Price. He said every time they crossed paths Price would jokingly remind Talib, that he was the better emcee.

We talked about Talib’s recent trips to Ferguson and how and why he got involved. He noted that it was fellow artist J Cole who got him to come down. Once there, Talib was stunned by what he saw and has stayed involved and raised thousands of dollars for the family of Mike Brown and a number of organizations who are trying to bring an end to police terrorism.

Talib talked about the police killing of Sam DuBose in Cincinnati. He noted that Sam was good friends with members of his crew Hi Tek and Mood.  He noted that any one of his people’s could’ve been in the car with Dubose that day when police shot him in the head..

We also spoke at length about his creative process, ghost writing, regional flavor in Hip Hop and the importance of the Bay Area. Talib also announced the release of his new album which is available for free download called  F– The Money.

After the artist talk, we watched Zakiya Harris,  Tossie Long, Sólás Burke-Lalgee, and Elephantine rock the house in a major way. Zakiya has been working her craft for a minute, but over the past year she has taken things to new heights. Her singing is on point. Her emceeing is not to be toyed with. You will get your feelings hurt if you follow her band.

When Talib took the stage after a brief intermission he had the crowd standing the entire time as he went from one hit song after another. He too had a band that was pretty tight.

Was blessed to hang with these folks this afternoon..Below are some photos from the event

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