NEON SATURDAY

Talib Kweli at House of Blues
Talib Kweli has long represented hip-hop’s two competing factions: its conscience and its id.
He has made a name for himself with cutting, often eloquent social commentary, but at the same time, Kweli has never shied away from pounding his chest and coming with the kind of debauched, double-edged bravado that defines the most hardened gangsta rappers.
Kweli has never had the mainstream success that he has pined for and certainly deserves over, say, the G-Unit dullards. He has nevertheless remained a steady, reliable presence in the hip-hop substrata, the seed from which scads of lesser MCs have most certainly sprung.
See him at 7 p.m. at the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South. Tickets are $32-$40; call 632-7600.
— JASON BRACELIN