Watch Talib Kweli’s Rueful Performance of ‘The One I Love’ on ‘Colbert’
Talib Kweli performed the remorseful new single “The One I Love” with help from a funk band and the Motown-signed soul singer BJ the Chicago Kid on The Late Show on Monday. The song appeared last November on Kweli’s Radio Silence album.
“The One I Love” aims to explain away past mistakes and convince a woman to come back. “She let me back in her life and I show my gratitude,” Kweli sings. “I try to curb my habit of acting like other rappers do.”
BJ the Chicago Kid does much of Kweli’s heavy lifting, crooning in a voice that evokes Seventies soul. “We always gon’ hear this and that about each other,” he sings. “But who knows and who cares?” Behind him, the band slipped easily between clattering hip-hop and funk grooves.
Radio Silence is Kweli’s eighth studio album. The LP peaked at Number 26 on the Independent Albums chart. In a recent interview with Billboard, the rapper said he hoped to release another solo album this year.