Talib Kweli Indulges in Rage at Rock the Bells

"We need to be as important to hip-hop as the Warped tour is to punk," Chang Weisberg, head of Guerilla Union, the company that puts on the annual Rock the Bells festival, tells Spinner. The event will have another chance when the 15-city tour kicks off in Boston on July 26, with headliners like Wu-Tang Clan, Nas and Talib Kewli, among others.

"I've been doing Rock the Bells for a number of years now and I'm extremely impressed with Chang's ability to reach my audience," Kweli says. "The first time, it blew my mind. I was in San Bernardino, and there were 20,000 kids who all knew my records. I'm like, 'Why can't we find these 20,000 kids in every city or every state? If Chang can find 20,000 kids in San f***ing Bernardino, we can do this for real.'"

Of course, it doesn't hurt that one of this year's headliners is the recently -- and much-anticipated -- reunited rockers Rage Against the Machine. "That opportunity fell into our lap by the grace of God," Weisberg says. "Ten years I've been doing shows, and I always invite [Rage singer] Zach de la Rocha to come out. He came out last year, and I know that he had a good time. I know that he hadn't seen that type of audience in a long time."

"I've been friends with Zach de la Rocha for years, and I've never seen a Rage Against the Machine concert," Kweli says. "This is going to be great for me."

For Weisberg, the festival's impetus is simple: a celebration of the music he loves. "Rock the Bells is a beautiful collection of hip-hop," he says. "It represents old, new, powerful, political and independent. Hip-hop, today, at the Summer Jams and radio shows, is not measured by the quality of the music that's being performed. I would put up every performer on this bill up against any other live act in the country to compete. I hope people will fall in love with what's going on and at the end of the day, it'll help the genre out tremendously."