‘Love Language’: The best rap song about love ever made
Brooklyn’s Talib Kweli is recognised for his incredible lyricism. He’s a true hip-hop enthusiast who hasn’t aimed for mainstream success, always prioritising meaningful lyrics and depth. Tracks like ‘Get By’ and ‘Black Girl Pain’ tackle genuine issues and challenges the African-American community faces, leading some to tag him as a conscious rapper. But really, Kweli’s music also focuses on love.
Kweli has always been strongly connected to soulful, heartfelt hip-hop, thanks in part to Kanye West’s significant production work. Kweli was even featured on his debut album, College Dropout. In addition to soul, Kweli often incorporated gospel influences and themes of spirituality into his music.
The tales of love that Kweli often decided to tell on his albums were introspective and, in a way, the purest form of rap. Hip-hop can explore a range of subjects and was invented for young Black Americans to express themselves, whether it’s anger or love. Whether it’s about peace or war, the art form of rap (an extension of poetry) is a way for people to communicate their emotions.
The music industry often promotes the most negative and self-destructive tracks, but Talib Kweli created several hip-hop songs that explore more uplifting themes, including love. While love has been a staple in genres like pop, rock, and country, hip-hop has historically lacked songs that celebrate this emotion. Love can be the best and worst thing in the world. It can be great when you find it and when you are in it (in love). However, it can be the most devastating thing when you can’t find it or fall out of love. Kweli communicated this flawlessly.
Over the years, plenty of people have raised concerns, asked questions, and spoken out about the odd nature of the music industry concerning its choice to provide the most funding and exposure to the artists who make the most negative music. However, as many people have identified, what most see as abnormal (murder, drug consumption and excessive promiscuity) has now been normalised. However, there is no doubt that all the negativity in hip-hop can be defeated by Talib Kweli’s epic track ‘Love Language’ featuring Les Nubians. The Brooklyn legend has previously explained how the 2000 single was a move away from the classic hip-hop themes.
During an interview with The Hundreds, Kweli explained how love was always spoken about with caveats in his day, explaining, “The era where I came of age in hip-hop, even if somebody made a love song, it was, ‘I love you but not as much as I love my Jeep. I love you, but you don’t come before my money. I love my black queen,n but I have all light-skinned women in the video.’”
During his interview, Kweli explained how he wanted to speak positively about real love between black people, adding, “I knew I had to speak about it after paying attention to hip-hop and having strong women in my life. The representation from men for strong women of colour, women of colour who loved hip-hop, it just wasn’t there!”
Although Kweli was a beacon of light for speaking about black love, no one seemed to pick up the torch after him, and since his run in the 1990s and early 2000s, the kind of love songs we have heard in hip-hop have been relatively mainstream and moderate.
On ‘Love Language,’ Kweli references love in several different languages. With lines such as “It flies in the face of fear / Yo, wherever you want to go love’ll take you there / Let’s go, you know a flower that grows in the ghetto / Know more about survival than the one from fresh meadows” and “Never drowning got me floatin’ watching you in slow motion / Love potion overdosin’ approachin’ / The explosion of my senses every day without your heart” the track is undeniably powerful.