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Mos Def And Talib Kweli Are Black Star
''Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star'' (often called simply ''Black Star'') is the debut studio album by Black Star (rap duo), Black Star, a hip hop duo consisting of rapper, emcees Talib Kweli and Mos Def (the latter of whom now goes by Yasiin Bey). The album was released on September 29, 1998, to critical acclaim. The title is a reference to the Black Star Line, a shipping line founded by Pan-Africanism, Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. The album deals with modern-day issues, philosophical ideas, and life in Brooklyn, New York City as the two artists know it. Background The album's fruition came about from the chemistry between the two emcees. Both planned to release their solo albums around the same time, but they postponed their individual projects and decided instead to collaborate on a full-length LP. The album's cover was designed by artist Brent Rollins. Music and lyrics The late jazz musician Weldon Irvine played the keys on the album's opening song, "Astronomy," whic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Star (rap Duo)
Black Star is an American hip hop duo formed in 1996, from Brooklyn, New York City. The duo is composed of rappers Mos Def (Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli. The duo is named after The Black Star Line, a shipping company founded by Marcus Garvey. Their critically-acclaimed debut album ''Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star'' was released on September 29, 1998. After decades of only releasing singles and appearing on compilations, Black Star released their sophomore studio album ''No Fear of Time'' May 3, 2022 on the podcasting platform Luminary. History Black Star arose from the underground movement of the late 1990s, which was in large part due to Rawkus Records, an independent record label stationed in New York City. They, together with other members of the Native Tongues Posse, helped shape underground alternative rap, bringing it into the mainstream. Both Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli have gone on to greater commercial and critical success in their solo careers. In 2001, Black St ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mos Def
Yasiin Bey (; born Dante Terrell Smith, December 11, 1973), previously and more commonly known by his stage name Mos Def (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. His hip hop career began in 1994, alongside his siblings in the short-lived rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), after which they appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. He formed the duo Black Star, alongside fellow Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli, and in 1998 they released their debut album ''Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star'', featuring the singles " Definition" and "Respiration". He was featured on the roster of Rawkus Records and in 1999 released his solo debut, ''Black on Both Sides''. His debut was followed by ''The New Danger'' (2004), ''True Magic'' (2006), and ''The Ecstatic'' (2009). About.com listed him 14th on its "50 Greatest Rappers of All Time". His hits include " Oh No", "Ms. Fat Booty", and "Mathematics". He was a child actor in television films, sitcoms, and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Weldon Irvine
Weldon Jonathan Irvine Jr. (October 27, 1943 – April 9, 2002), also known as Master Wel, was an American composer, playwright, poet, pianist, organist, and keyboardist. Biography Irvine, an African American, was born in Hampton, Virginia, on October 27, 1943. He moved to New York City in 1965, settling in the St. Albans, Queens neighborhood. He was involved with various musical genres including Jazz-Funk, jazz, hip hop, funk, rhythm and blues, and gospel. He served as the bandleader for jazz singer Nina Simone and was a mentor to many New York hip-hop artists, including Q-Tip and Mos Def. He wrote more than 500 songs, including the lyrics for "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", performed live for the first time by Simone on the album '' Black Gold'' (1970). It has been dubbed the "official" Civil Rights anthem. In 1998, he performed the keys for "Astronomy (8th Light)" on Black Star's album ''Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star''. In 1999, Irvine contributed on Mos Def's d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. Jazz has roots in European harmony and African rhythmic rituals. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. But jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, Kansas City jazz (a hard-swinging, bluesy, improvisationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behind New York County (Manhattan). Brooklyn is also New York City's most populous borough,2010 Gazetteer for New York State . Retrieved September 18, 2016. with 2,736,074 residents in 2020. Named after the Dutch village of Breukelen, Brooklyn is located on the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Marcus Garvey
Marcus Mosiah Garvey Sr. (17 August 188710 June 1940) was a Jamaican political activist, publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, and orator. He was the founder and first President-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL, commonly known as UNIA), through which he declared himself Provisional President of Africa. Ideologically a black nationalist and Pan-Africanist, his ideas came to be known as Garveyism. Garvey was born into a moderately prosperous Afro-Jamaican family in Saint Ann's Bay and he was apprenticed into the print trade as a teenager. Working in Kingston, he got involved in trade unionism before he lived briefly in Costa Rica, Panama, and England. After he returned to Jamaica, he founded the UNIA in 1914. In 1916, he moved to the United States and established a UNIA branch in New York City's Harlem district. Emphasising unity between Africans and the African diaspora, he campaigned for an end to European colonial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pan-Africanism
Pan-Africanism is a worldwide movement that aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all Indigenous and diaspora peoples of African ancestry. Based on a common goal dating back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Americas and Europe. Pan-Africanism can be said to have its origins in the struggles of the African people against enslavement and colonization and this struggle may be traced back to the first resistance on slave ships—rebellions and suicides—through the constant plantation and colonial uprisings and the "Back to Africa" movements of the 19th century. Based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to "unify and uplift" people of African ancestry. At its core, pan-Africanism is a belief that "African people, both on the continent and in the diaspora, share not merely a common history, but a c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Black Star Line
The Black Star Line (1919−1922) was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, the organizer of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), and other members of the UNIA. The shipping line was created to facilitate the transportation of goods and eventually African Americans throughout the African global economy. It derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate. The Black Star Line became a key part of Garvey's contribution to the Back-to-Africa movement, but it was mostly unsuccessful, partially due to infiltration by federal agents. It was one among many businesses which the UNIA originated, such as the Universal Printing House, Negro Factories Corporation, and the widely distributed and highly successful ''Negro World'' weekly newspaper. The Black Star Line and its successor, the Black Cross Navigation and Trading Company, operated between 1919 and 1922. It stands today as a major symbol for Garvey followers and Pan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yasiin Bey
Yasiin Bey (; born Dante Terrell Smith, December 11, 1973), previously and more commonly known by his stage name Mos Def (), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. His hip hop career began in 1994, alongside his siblings in the short-lived rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), after which they appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. He formed the duo Black Star (rap duo), Black Star, alongside fellow Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli, and in 1998 they released their debut album ''Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star'', featuring the singles "Definition (song), Definition" and "Respiration (song), Respiration". He was featured on the roster of Rawkus Records and in 1999 released his solo debut, ''Black on Both Sides''. His debut was followed by ''The New Danger'' (2004), ''True Magic'' (2006), and ''The Ecstatic'' (2009). About.com listed him 14th on its "50 Greatest Rappers of All Time". His hits include "Oh No (Mos Def and Pharoahe Monch song), Oh No ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rapper
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The components of rap include "content" (what is being said), "flow" (rhythm, rhyme), and "delivery" ( cadence, tone). Rap differs from spoken-word poetry in that it is usually performed off-time to musical accompaniment. Rap is a primary ingredient of hip hop music commonly associated with that genre; however, the origins of rap predate hip-hop culture by many years. Precursors to modern rap include the West African griot tradition, Cockney rhyming slang, certain vocal styles of blues, jazz, 1960s African-American poetry and ''Sprechgesang''. The use of rap in popular music originated in the Bronx, New York City in the 1970s, alongside the hip hop genre and cultural movement. Rapping developed from the role of master of ceremonies (MC) a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Respiration (song)
"Respiration" is a song by American rappers Mos Def and Talib Kweli, collectively known as Black Star. It was released as the second single from the duo’s eponymously titled 1998 album (see 1998 in music). It features a guest verse from fellow American rapper Common and guitar playing by DeChown Jenkins. The song’s production was handled by Hi-Tek, who sampled "The Fox" as performed by Don Randi. In addition, the song's introduction samples a monologue from the hip hop documentary ''Style Wars''. It is found on '' Best of Decade I: 1995-2005'', a compilation of Rawkus Records' best songs. It can also be found on Howie B's compilation album '' Another Late Night: Howie B''. The single reached #54 on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. Two remixes were made for "Respiration": 'Flying High Mix' contains production by Pete Rock and a verse by Black Thought of The Roots. Another remix found on the ''Hip Hop Classics Vol. 1'' compilation album also features Pete Rock produ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Definition (song)
"Definition" is the first single from Black Star's eponymously titled 1998 album (see 1998 in music). It is produced by Hi-Tek, who samples "The P Is Free" by Boogie Down Productions for the track's beat. In addition, the song's chorus interpolates "Stop the Violence" by Boogie Down Productions. The chorus and the song's lyrics in general deal with the necessity to stop violence in hip hop. An underground hit the song still reached #60 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart. It is featured on multiples compilations such as '' Best of Decade I: 1995-2005'', Rawkus Records' greatest hits album. Allmusic writer Jason Kaufman considers it to be a "flawless" track. A reprise of "Definition" titled "RE: DEFinition" can be found on the ''Black Star'' album. It also appears on MTV Classic's 90's Nation and Yo! Hip Hop Mix. Track list A-side # "Definition" (Radio Version) # "Definition" (What We Really Said) # "Definition" (Instrumental to Your Development) B-side # "Twice Inna Lifeti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
