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If skills sold, Talib Kweli would have been one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time. As it was, however, the especially earnest MC became one of the most critically successful rappers of his time, which dawned in the late '90s when he rapped alongside Mos Def and DJ Hi-Tek as part of the group Black Star. This trio of up-and-comers and their widely acclaimed self-titled 1998 album debut helped make Rawkus Records one of the premier hip-hop outposts of the late '90s. In the process, they ... Read More

A Tribe Called Quest, Chuck D, De La Soul, Grandmaster Flash, Nas, Jungle Brothers, Q-Tip, KRS-One, Boogie Down Productions, Eric B. & Rakim and Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force