Is Kweli a Sell-Out?

First of all, definitely not. But now you're reading so.....

Perusing the interweb this morning I came across a mad interesting interview with one of YW's favorite artists, Talib Kweli. As an MC Kweli has always been associated with "conscious" or "progressive" hip-hop, in fact, for many hip-hop heads he epitomizes those terms. As "progressive" hip-hop's popularity has grown and its audience has become more robust, everyone from hip-hop nerd to Rasta-loving white boys seem to fill these shows, debates about what it means to be a "conscious" MC are frequently taken up--me and Nickname have had many such debates over many glasses of Scotch. The underlying theme of all our debates seems to be: Does an MC who is considered "conscious" have a responsibility to live up to that label? Can Kweli make a club banger? What is the role of music in our lives (super deep)? I once heard Mos Def say that he was tired of people expecting him to put on a cape and "go save hip-hop" from the commercial garbage that floods mainstream radio. I feel that. But I digress...
Here is a section of the interview I read and Kweli's take on a very poignant question:

Has progressive rap sold out, and are you part of the problem?

Talib Kweli: I think you have to be clear on what you job is… I provide a public service. I provide music for people. What is people’s relationship to music? Throughout our history, people use music for spiritual upliftment and to take their mind off things, not to be beat in the head with a bunch of facts and what’s wrong with the world. If they want to hear that, I go speak at colleges all the time. We can build and have a session and talk about the world’s problems. I consider it an honor and a blessing that I can take a message and put it into something entertaining. But, I realize that it’s my job is to be entertaining.

Kweli on the co-opting of "progressive" hip-hop

Is there external pressure to even that out? The reason so many progressive groups were grabbed up in the last few years is because they represent cred… they want our cred, but they don’t want what we have to say…

TK: As artists, the era of record companies stifling your creative control doesn’t really make sense anymore. They don’t even have to go about the business of stifling someone’s creative control once they sign them. Once they sign them, it’s really about the profitability. If they make money with Dead Prez, they’ll sign them regardless. They haven’t figure out how to make money with them yet. Once they do, Dead Prez could be the biggest group in the world, regardless of their politics. They could be talking about burning down everything; if they’re making money it don’t matter.

To read the whole interview (you should) peep it at Flavorpill