Although they downplay how much thought they put into choosing their moniker, the debut album of Brooklyn-based rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli is chock full of the intelligence so lacking in the majority of hip hop these days.
Black Star, also the name of the shipping line for Marcus Garvey's repatriation movement, is the brightest celestial phenomenon to emerge from hip hop's underground in years. With dense, thought-provoking lyrics, a barrage of references to the likes of Fela Kuti and John Coltrane and enough wordplay to force secondary and tertiary listens to the same verse for comprehension, this album should be picked up by anyone interested in head-bobbing mind expansion.
The single "Definition" and its segue into "Re-Definition" provide the most fluid material on the 12-track album, but two others are beacons of poetic science and raw emotion. On "Astronomy (8th Light)," Mos and Kweli engage in metaphoric call-and-responses on the beauty of blackness: "Blacker than the nighttime sky of Bed-Stuy in July/Blacker than the seed in the blackberry pie/Blacker than the middle of my eye/Black like Fela Man Cry." On "Respiration," the duo seeks calm amid urban chaos and enlists the help of Chicago griot Common. The emotion and despair from the spoken word-type lyrics and the bluesy jazz guitar in the background come through without the need to invoke an R&B hook from the 70s.
The understated but solid production on the album shines the spotlight directly on the lyrical talents of these two wordsmiths who carry the banner of hip hop music you don't have to take with a grain of salt.
If you like Black Star, check out:
Mos Def Black on Both Sides
The Roots Do You Want More ?!!!??!
Various Artists Lyricist Lounge Vol. 1
A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory
Common One Day It'll All Make Sense
