Hip hop, like every other genre of music, has its one-hit wonders and flavor-of-the-month artists. They typically blow up for two or three months, plateau, and then are never heard from again (where you at, Soulja Boy?).

There have been countless groups and emcees over time that have fit this mold and, despite their own desperate attempts to rekindle the initial spark, these has-beens are never quite able to recapture the magic. The reason for this is always the same: They don’t have love for real hip hop. Every artist who has experienced success and longevity in the rap game (a very difficult thing to do) has love for real hip hop. And I don’t mean love for popping bottles or slanging crack rocks, I mean a pure love for rocking the microphone, whether it be in a basement or live at the Grammys.

Talib Kweli, an exceptionally talented Brooklyn emcee who performed Sunday night at the Granada here in Lawrence, has mad love for real hip hop. In fact, I don’t know of any emcee of Kweli’s caliber who has been so productive on such a consistent basis for such a long time.

Kweli first truly showcased his unadulterated love for hip hop with Black Star, a collaborative effort with fellow Brooklyn emcee Mos Def, in 1998. The album became an instant classic among hip-hop heads worldwide and garnered widespread praise for its high quality of production and lyricism. Shortly after this release, Kweli recorded an album with now-legendary producer Hi-Tek under the group name Reflection Eternal. The group dubbed the album “Train of Thought,” and it, too, was immediately recognized as one of the most ground-breaking hip-hop albums of its generation.

Reflection Eternal is working on a new album scheduled to come out this summer, and the super-duo showed up in Lawrence Sunday night to rock the house and promote its release.

Fo more than an hour, Kweli and Hi-Tek made the Granada go absolutely insane. Even when performing cuts from the upcoming album, songs no one in the audience knew, the crowd remained ecstatic and incredibly responsive to Kweli’s raw lyrics and knack for keeping up the crowd’s energy. The two icons slyly tried to deceive the crowd into thinking they were retiring backstage (an act no one in the crowd bought) only to return a minute later to belt out some more hot tracks. Reflection Eternal topped this all off with the two members switching roles, Kweli hopping behind the turntables while Hi-Tek emceed for about an hour. Audience members who wanted to come on stage were encouraged to do so, and we completely surrounded the two behind the tables.

I heard both artists scream “We love Lawrence!” on several occasions, and you could tell that Kweli was genuinely having a great time, happily mixing hip-hop classics and watching the break-dancing circles form in front of him. It is this type of interactive experience that real emcees offer a crowd. The two could have left after the encore, but decided instead to give fans, myself included, an experience they definitely will not forget anytime soon.

After all these years touring the world and performing for crowds, Talib Kweli is still passionate about his art and still has a love for real hip hop. Kweli is in the process of developing three new albums, including one with the Reflection Eternal project, and he is featured with artists from every corner of the hip-hop spectrum (check my beatdowns for some titles). This is the reason Kweli has been able to remain successful for so long; he has never lost his love for hip hop, and hip hop has never lost its love for him. Peace.

— Coldham is a Chicago senior in journalism and English.