If skills had been sold, Talib Kweli would have been one of the most commercially successful rappers of his time. However, the serious MC became one of the most critically successful rappers of his time, which came into being in the late '90s when he rapped alongside Mos Def and DJ Hi-Tek as part of the group Black Star. This trio of emerging artists and their acclaimed 1998 self-titled debut album, Black Star, helped make Rawkus Records one of the premier outposts of late-'90s underground rap. Kweli and Hi-Tek then collaborated as a duo on Reflection Eternal (2000), which firmly distinguished them from Mos Def, who went solo. For a moment, Kweli and his Rawkus associates seemed like a full-fledged movement: a return to the kind of hip-hop associated with the so-called golden age. However, it didn't have to be this way. Rawkus somehow lost his momentum and his roster sadly dispersed, leaving Kweli alone to carry the torch. He continued his output, starting with a proper solo debut, Quality (2002), and although it didn't rack up huge sales numbers, it remained a critical favorite. In fact, he was one of the most admired and respected rappers on the major label circuit during the mid-2000s, as evidenced by Jay-Z's famous Black Album rhyme: "If skills were sold, to tell the truth / I'd probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli." Born in Brooklyn as the eldest of two children born to college professors, Kweli's name, Talib, is an Arabic name meaning "the seeker or student," while his last name is a Ghanaian name meaning "of truth or knowledge ." He began developing his literary gift in elementary school, when he wrote short stories, poems and things like that. It wasn't until years later, in high school, that he turned to hip-hop as an outlet for his self-expression. There in high school he met a young Dante Smith, better known today as Mos Def. This fateful meeting further attracted Kweli to hip-hop, and another fateful meeting further convinced him that he had a bright future as an MC. During a trip to Cincinnati in 1994 he met Tony Cottrell, aka DJ Hi-Tek, who at the time was part of a local rap group called Mood. Kweli impressed Hi-Tek during their time together, and the DJ invited the MC to guest on several tracks for Mood's 1997 album Doom. Shortly thereafter, Kweli and Hi-Tek formed a partnership as Reflection Eternal and they recorded "Fortified Live", which a then-fledgling Rawkus label released on its first Soundbombing compilation..