An Eternal partnership

Kweli and Hi-Tek return to Reflection after nearly a decade

 It’s been almost a decade since rapper Talib Kweli collaborated with DJ/producer Hi-Tek as Reflection Eternal. But this summer they performed some of the tracks from their forthcoming “Revolutions Per Minute” on several dates on the “Rock the Bells” tour, and were pleased to learn that their fans’ support was, well, eternal.

Q: It’s been a long time in between albums. What’s the biggest change in your working relationship?
Kweli: We had bigger experiences. More resources at our fingertips. But we have less time because we have more responsibilities. As you have a career, your career becomes your life. Your life becomes your career. And it’s very hard to maintain art for the sake of the art; for the sake of practicing it. For a Reflection album it’s important that we do the album not just for the maintaining of our way of life. Like, “Oh, we can make some paper for doing this album.” We want to do it because we really love to do it.

Q: What made you say it’s time to do it again?
Hi Tek: It’s like he said. But on top of that, you do want to sell records. You don’t just want to put an album out and not have the marketing set up. You want to meet all the deadlines but make it dope at the same time.

Q: Does the current state of music make an impact on how you make your music, or is that just something that you leave to the marketing department?
Hi Tek: I’m a big believer in that the youth are going to shape what hip-hop sounds like, whether we have something to say about it or not. You just have to take something from it whether you like it or not.

Mos Def presents
“The Ecstatic” tour
Featuring Erykah Badu,
Talib Kweli and Jay
Electronica
Tonight, 7:30
The House of Blues
15 Lansdowne St., Boston
$30-$40, 888-693-2583
www.hob.com