gravitas, talib kwelis sixth solo album, began to take shape in may, during the weeks following the release of kwelis fifth solo album, prisoner of conscious. loaded with guests, prisoner of conscious was well received and reviewed, and gained talib many new fans to add to his already large following. however, kweli soon found himself wanting to record more personal material and really document his journey thru music. when singer ryan leslie, who created the platform that kweli is using to sell gravitas, approached him with the idea of selling direct to fan, songs that were just rough ideas began to fully form in kwelis head.