Afterwards, he continued his partnership with Hi-Tek. Kweli appeared on the track “Transmoreify,” the B-side to their “Hustle on the Side” single. The two eventually met when the Flatbush, Brooklyn-born Kweli visited his roommate in his hometown, and connected with the group Mood, who worked with Hi-Tek as a producer.

Both channel their personalities through their techniques, as Kweli raps, “I freak with word power, my man speak with beats.”īoth halves of Reflection Eternal first connected in the mid-1990s through Kweli’s college roommate, who was from Cincinnati, Hi-Tek’s home city. The pair brought out each other’s strengths, with Kweli’s complex styles and matter-of-fact demeanor complementing Hi-Tek’s soulful production perfectly. Talib Kweli Greene and Tony “Hi-Tek” Cottrell’s first album Train of Thought, released 20 years ago, definitely hinted at their potential to be another accomplished duo in the same vein as Gang Starr. I once hoped Reflection Eternal would be an enduring pairing. The emcee and the producer don’t really get to explore their chemistry beyond their initial effort before moving on to other projects. The problem is, for every Freddie Gibbs and Madlib or PRhyme ( Royce Da 5’9” and DJ Premier) far too many other tandems are one-off efforts. The past decade or so has seen the return of great “one emcee, one producer” pairings. Happy 20th Anniversary to Reflection Eternal’s debut album Train of Thought, originally released October 17, 2000.

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