Nightly news repeat, who got shot down and locked down You could lose your teeth, many crews retreat The shiny Apple is bruised but sweet and if you choose to eat With no conscience, back streets stay darkened Stay alive, you play or die, no options,no Batman and RobinĬan't tell between the cops and the robbers, they both partners, they all heartless Skyscrapers is colossus, the cost of living is preposterous Hard knuckles on the second hands of working class watches Where mercenaries is paid to trade hot stock tipsįor profits, thirsty criminals take pockets The indisputable, we New York the narcotic Tonight alive, let's describe the inscrutable Ensconced in brittle guitar chords, soft keys and a thumping beat, Mos Def peels back all of New York City's sales pitches to tell the real story. Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star is a dense and truly brilliant work from start to finish, but it's on "Respiration," the album's second single, that the Def one delivers what's quite possibly his best verse-ever. Black Star reimagines Toni Morrison and taps into the Black is Beautiful movement, all the while showing reverence for Marcus Garvey's Black Star shipping line. Both Mos Def and Talib Kweli delayed their own debut solo records to concentrate on this one, and their chemistry is electric as they approach rap as if it were a history project. Together, the Black Star duo tackled topics like drug policy, crime, crowded prisons, gentrification, greed, and self-improvement. What's more, it re-positioned New York City, and Brooklyn specifically, as the center of the genre. One of the finest hip-hop albums ever, Mos Def and Talib Kweli's collaborative Black Star LP proved that the skills of both MCs had fully matured. Blending his rhymes with De La Soul, the forefathers of the jazz-sampling scene he'd later command, the 21-year-old more than held his own and made it clear that the world should expect great things. One could argue that Mos Def's career begun in 1994 with the group Urban Thermo Dynamics, but this was his proper coming-out to the world. Losing Yasiin Bey would be a huge blow for hip-hop, and so it's in that spirit that we look back at the greatest musical moments of his career.ġ996: De La Soul - "Big Brother Beat" ft. You can't talk about Brooklyn rap without mentioning his records, and though he may have changed his name and moved to a different continent, his skills are still very much intact. And rightfully so: Mos Def is responsible for some of the most vital and dynamic New York hip-hop ever. Still, it's the news of his total retirement from music that's sending shockwaves through the music industry. He also stressed that he is "being prevented from leaving unjustly, unlawfully, and without any logical reason," going on to muse that South African authorities have "political reasons" for stopping, detaining, and, soon, banishing him. "I’ll be releasing my final album this year, and that’s that. And also from Hollywood effective immediately," the MC said. "I’m retiring from the music recording industry as it is currently assembled today. In a message posted to Kanye West's own website, Mos Def spoke out in candid tones about his arrest, personal politics, and career prospects. A representative confirmed that he was detained for at least two days, and the BBC reports that he and his family have less than two weeks to leave the country.Įarlier this week, the whole plot thickened. Having overstayed a tourist visa granted to him by South Africa in 2013, Bey/Def was arrested last Friday in Cape Town when he tried to board a flight to Ethiopia using something called a World Passport. It's been a strange, tumultuous week for Yasiin Bey, the talented Brooklyn-born rapper who used to go by the name Mos Def.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |