Talib Kweli, Ear Drum

Talib Kweli has sometimes sounded like a rapper with one eye on his critics. Wary of being too closely pegged to unfashionable causes like conscious rap, he bent a little too far toward the urban mainstream with his 2004 album The Beautiful Struggle. Now he's back on his own terms, those of the earnest hyper-intelligent bookworm who won the plaudits of Jay-Z and 50 Cent, and sounding a lot more comfortable, with 'Hostile Gospel' and 'Say Something' re-staking a claim for the hip hop high ground over beats that are soulful and sonically coherent.