Talib Kweli has accused Madlib’s longtime business partner Eothen “Egon” Alapatt of stealing MF DOOM’s rhyme book among a series of other allegations.
On Wednesday (August 31), the Black Star rapper took to Instagram to call out the Now-Again Records boss for being a “culture vulture” and highlight how he allegedly “takes advantage of Black artists and brags about it.”
Sharing a screenshot of an email Egon had sent him as well as a few other related pics, Kweli wrote: “One day the hiphop community is going to have to discuss what a lying, stealing, conniving culture vulture Eothen Apalatt AKA Egon from Now Again Records is.”
“This is a non Black person who routinely takes advantage of Black artists and brags about it,” he added.
Kweli then talked about how a discussion needs to be had about how Egon has allegedly tried to take advantage of J Dilla’s mother and “block” the release of Black Star’s most recent album, No Fear of Time.
He went on: “We need to discuss how he uses the money he steals from iconic hiphop artists to buy up catalogs of unsuspecting older Black artists and then hordes the music so that he can decide what gets sampled and what doesn’t depending on how much money he personally makes off of music he doesn’t create.
“He plays no instruments, he writes no rhymes, he sings no songs, he makes no beats, but he brags to me about how he has a 3 million dollar house with money stashed in the walls during negotiations for the artists he used to work with.”
The post’s final claim sees Kweli accuse Egon of stealing a rhyme book belonging to the late MF DOOM. Egon allegedly refuses to give the book to DOOM’s family.
Black Star 'No Fear Of Time' Is Almost Worth The Wait
“But today all I want to know is why Egon stole MF DOOM rhyme book and refuses to give it back to DOOM family, even after MF DOOM passed away,” Kweli wrote. “MF DOOM officiated this mans wedding FOR FREE, but then later stopped rocking with him because of his devil ways. Someone tag nowagain and asking Egon why he stole MF DOOM rhyme book, he got me blocked. The era of the culture vulture is OVER.”
Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier this month that Talib Kweli is suing the website Jezebel for $300,000 over an article they wrote about him in 2020, which he’s said has caused him “emotional distress.”
Jezebel published a story titled “Talib Kweli’s Harassment Campaign Shows How Unprotected Black Women Are Online and Off” in August 2020, which detailed the rapper’s social media interactions with a then-24-year-old student and activist named Maya Moody.
The exchange resulted in Twitter permanently banning Kweli (real name Talib Kweli Greene) from the platform, citing “repeated violations of Twitter rules.”
In the lawsuit, filed on his own behalf in a New York court earlier in August, the Brooklyn native claimed Jezebel “took advantage of [him] and used him as a guinea pig to clarify how [B]lack men treat [B]lack women; meanwhile, the plaintiff never harassed anyone; he was defending himself and his family.”
Egon is a total vulture, but Talib is also a little bitch. they both need to retire and stfu
if Talib worked on his bag or his bars half as hard as dude works on calling 19yo white girls devils on IG, he would have a 3M$ crib too.
dude seems obsessed with devils while he does unpaid labor for Instagram and Apple, who are the real MF DEVILS. stupid fuckin past it never was.
You must have not heard his bars on Black star 2. He outrapped Yasiin (who was good too tho) and prob your favorite rapper. Nice try E
Yasiin hasn’t made a decent track in like fifteen years, Talib twenty. neither are even in my top 100 all time. madlib is a genius. his biz pardner Egon probably should punched in the face one time, but honestly he is doing biz more honestly than the usual mafia rats like Fuchs or literally all other rap labels. silly little boi
I would not be surprised if this was really Talib. Lol He seems like the type to go hunting for criticism because he can’t take that he hasn’t been relevant in a long ass time. Nobody cares about Talib.
I hope something happens to this dude and his money in the walls and kweli dork ass gets summoned. Spiteful ass bitch “he got money in the walls” ass bitch. Little dick black nerd
Making money in a capitalist market doesn’t make you a vulture. If you sign a contract, you made a business transaction. If you’re too stupid to understand the contract, and even dumber to admit that and pay a lawyer a few hundred bucks to explain it to you, you’re ducked in life regardless. Talib has always been a burger racist hypocrite loser. He runs around yelling “devil” and non black etc. it’s just racism. Pure and simple. Dude was kicked off Twitter and accused of, and sued over sexual assault allegations. Plot twist, it was a white person, and shocker… Talib was (and still is) married. GTFOH. On this one his lies don’t even make sense. Madlib has a rep for being a stand up guy. $500K to put out an album you’re on? What did you sign, dummy? LOL. Maybe a non black, “devil” lawyer can help you?
This hypocrite racist kindergarten rapper has already ended up by his own cringiness. Rifleman put a tombstone on his nonexistent career and that’s it.
I basically agree with Eothon, who is a scumbag businessman, but thats what hes supposed to be. I never understood this mentality where rappers think record execs are supposed to facilitate your terrible records for charity. If you could do it all yourself, you would. Talib is greedy and vastly overestimates his appeal. His corny racist takes are just there to deflect from him being a petty, stupid human being and a boring rapper.
I’m glad to see people in the comments acknowledging that Talib is a little bitch. He’s been this way for a long, long time. I got deep into Black Star around 2010-ish (mainly for mos def verses) and started looking into them both online and discovered how much of a little pussy Talib was. He got a big mouth that needs to get popped, that’s for sure.
This is why musicians have managers to do negotiations with other artists managers. Talib trying to do everything himself took him from being considered one of the best to not even mentioned. There’s a thing going around online how artist don’t need managers but take this for example, if Talib is fussing EGone he is dissing madlib as well. That’s what Talib doesn’t understand is that he has been slandering friends and associates of many important people he considers important. Managers are dicks because they are doing business to make money and that’s stressful.
Perfectly said
Talib attacks anyone who calls him out on his bullshit. He literally posts a 2 year old email where the dude is like, “hey man, we keep making offers to get this record released and YOU keep fucking it up…im done” then he baselessly accuses the guy of theft, and, his normal go-to, appropriation. He tries to make it seem to his followers that Egon held The Blackstar record hostage for $500,000.
Talib is a talented dude, but he has fallen so far off. His only way to stay valid is to continuously, and baselessly accuse people of racism, nazism, appropriation, bullying, attacking him etc etc. It’s a lot and it’s sad. In his mind, anyone who questions him is immediately the lowest possible form of a human. He’s a narcissist in the highest degree.
Like, homie got banned from Twitter for bullying and he’s still the victim. always.