Hardcover – February 16, 2021

From one of the most lyrically gifted, socially conscious rappers of the past twenty years, Vibrate Higher is a firsthand account of hip-hop as a political force

Before

Talib Kweli became a world-renowned hip-hop artist, he was a Brooklyn

kid who liked to cut class, spit rhymes, and wander the streets of

Greenwich Village with a motley crew of artists, rappers, and DJs who

found hip-hop more inspiring than their textbooks (much to the chagrin

of the educator parents who had given their son an Afrocentric name in

hope of securing for him a more traditional sense of pride and purpose).

Kweli’s was the first generation to grow up with hip-hop as established

culture―a genre of music that has expanded to include its own pantheon

of heroes, rich history and politics, and distinct worldview.

Eventually,

childhood friendships turned into collaborations, and Kweli gained

notoriety as a rapper in his own right. From collaborating with some of

hip-hop’s greatest―including Mos Def, Common, Kanye West, Pharrell

Williams, and Kendrick Lamar―to selling books out of the oldest

African-American bookstore in Brooklyn, ultimately leaving his record

label, and taking control of his own recording career, Kweli tells the

winding, always compelling story of the people and events that shaped

his own life as well as the culture of hip-hop that informs American

culture at large.

Vibrate Higher illuminates Talib Kweli’s

upbringing and artistic success, but so too does it give life to

hip-hop as a political force―one that galvanized the Movement for Black

Lives and serves a continual channel for resistance against the rising

tide of white nationalism.