Talib Kweli Enlists Nine Producers for ‘Gutter Rainbows’

Fresh off some hobnobbing with Bill Clinton, Talib Kweli has returned to work as a solo artist and is clocking studio hours towards his follow-up to 2007's 'Eardrum.' Kweli announced that the new album would be called 'Gutter Rainbows' nearly two weeks ago, claiming that the record was receiving its finishing touches and would be "available sooner than you think."

Last night, Kweli hopped on Twitter to provide some additional details about the producers and collaborators that he is working with this time around. "Working on #gutterrainbows tonight," he wrote. "New album ft Madlib, MPhazes, Ski Beatz, Hi-Tek, Shuko, Symbolic1, NickSpeed, Blaqtoven, EJones word!"

When he made the initial announcement about 'Gutter Rainbows,' Kweli explained the origin of the album's evocative visual title came from a certain coming-of-age literary classic.

"I read 'Catcher In The Rye' when I was in Europe a few months ago and I didn't really enjoy, but one thing that I took from it was that reference," he recalled. "The character actually says 'gasoline rainbows' in the book. I was like, 'Wow.' I've always wanted to call a song 'Gutter Rainbows' -- just because of the rainbows that you see when the oil and the water mix in the gutter -- and do a song based on that. I just remember being a little kid and finding beauty in that, and how you have to find beauty in stuff like that when you in the hood. But that reference -- him noticing the gasoline rainbows in New York City, and just the character's love for New York City -- are what attracted to me to that phrase. Somebody else got it, so it made me feel like it was more than just a song. Maybe it was an album."