Initially regarded as one of the most promising rappers to emerge in the late '90s,
Mos Def turned to acting in subsequent years as music became a secondary concern for him. He did release new music from time to time, including albums such as
The New Danger (2004), but his output was erratic and seemingly governed by whim.
Mos Def nonetheless continued to draw attention, especially from critics and
underground rap fans, and his classic breakthrough albums --
Black Star (1998), a collaboration with
Talib Kweli and
Hi-Tek; and
Black on Both Sides (1999), his solo debut -- continued to be revered, all the more so as time marched forward.
Mos Def often used his renown for political purposes, protesting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Jena Six incident in 2007, for instance.
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Initially regarded as one of the most promising rappers to emerge in the late '90s,
Mos Def turned to acting in subsequent years as music became a secondary concern for him. He did release new music from time to time, including albums such as
The New Danger (2004), but his output was erratic and seemingly governed by whim.
Mos Def nonetheless continued to draw attention, especially from critics and
underground rap fans, and his classic breakthrough albums --
Black Star (1998), a collaboration with
Talib Kweli and
Hi-Tek; and
Black on Both Sides (1999), his solo debut -- continued to be revered, all the more so as time marched forward.
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Mos Def often used his renown for political purposes, protesting in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Jena Six incident in 2007, for instance.
Born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY,
Mos Def began rapping at age nine and began professionally acting at age 14, when he appeared in a TV movie. After high school, he began acting in a variety of television roles, most notably appearing in 1994 on a short-lived
Bill Cosby series, The Cosby Mysteries. In 1994
Mos Def formed the
rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics with his younger brother and sister, and signed a recording deal with Payday Records that didn't amount to much. In 1996 his solo career was launched with a pair of high-profile guest features on
De La Soul's "Big Brother Beat" and Da Bush Babees' "S.O.S." A year later, in 1997,
Mos Def released his debut single, "Universal Magnetic," on Royalty Records, and it became an
underground rap hit. This led to a recording contract with Rawkus Records, which was just getting off the ground at the time, and he began working on a full-length album with like-minded rapper
Talib Kweli and producer
Hi-Tek. The resulting album,
Black Star (1998), became one of the most celebrated
rap albums of its time. A year later came
Mos Def's solo album,
Black on Both Sides, and it inspired further attention and praise. Yet, aside from appearances on the Rawkus compilation series Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing, no follow-up recordings were forthcoming, as the up-and-coming rapper turned his attention elsewhere, away from music.
During the early 2000s,
Mos Def acted in several films (Monster's Ball, Bamboozled, Brown Sugar, The Woodsman) and even spent some time on Broadway (the Pulitzer Prize-winning Topdog/Underdog). He simultaneously worked on the Black Jack Johnson project with several iconic black musicians: keyboardist
Bernie Worrell (
Parliament/
Funkadelic), guitarist
Dr. Know (
Bad Brains), drummer Will Calhoun (
Living Colour), and bassist Doug Wimbish (
the Sugarhill Gang,
Grandmaster Flash,
Living Colour). This project aimed to reclaim
rock music, especially the
rap-rock hybrid, from such artists as
Limp Bizkit frontman
Fred Durst, who
Mos Def openly despised. What made Black Jack Johnson so anticipated though was not so much the supergroup roster of musicians or even
Mos Def himself, but rather the lack of black
rock bands. Following the demise of
Living Colour, there were few, if any, that had attained substantial success.
Mos Def hoped to infuse the
rock world with his all-black band, and during the early 2000s, he performed several small shows with his band around the New York area. In October 2004, he finally delivered a second solo album,
The New Danger, which involved Black Jack Johnson on a few tracks.
Two years later, after a few more acting roles -- including the Golden Globe-winning Lackawanna Blues and the Emmy-winning Something the Lord Made, both of which were made-for-television movies --
Mos Def released his third solo album,
True Magic (2006). A contract-fulfilling release for Geffen, which had absorbed Rawkus years prior, the album trickled out in a small run during the last week of 2006. Bizarrely, the disc came with no artwork and was sold in a clear plastic case -- though its single, "Undeniable," did manage to grab a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance. Months later, Geffen re-released it with full artwork and a slightly different track listing. ~ Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
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