Black Star is an American hip hop duo formed in 1996, from

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, be ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The duo is composed of rappers

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 s ...

(Yasiin Bey) and

Talib Kweli Talib Kweli Greene (; born October 3, 1975) is an American rapper. He earned recognition early on through his collaboration with fellow Brooklyn rapper Mos Def in 1997, when they formed the group Black Star. Kweli's musical career continued with ...

. The duo is named after The

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 ...

, a shipping company founded by

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 ...

. Their critically-acclaimed debut album ''

Mos Def & 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, a hip hop duo consisting of emcees Talib Kweli and Mos Def (the latter of whom now goes by Yasiin Bey). The album was released ...

'' 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 ''No Fear of Time'' is the second studio album by American hip hop duo Black Star. Entirely produced by Madlib, the album marks the duo's first full-length release in 24 years, following 1998's ''Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star'', and was r ...

'' 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 Rawkus Records was an American hip hop record label known for starting the careers of many rappers. Rawkus started in 1995 with releases in hip-hop, drum and bass and fun-dustrial (Dystopia One). Label heads Brian Brater and Jarret Myer then s ...

, an

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels and artists are often represented ...

stationed in

. They, together with other members of the

Native Tongues Posse The Native Tongues were a collective of late 1980s and early 1990s hip-hop artists known for their positive-minded, good-natured Afrocentric lyrics, and for pioneering the use of eclectic sampling and jazz-influenced beats. Its principal me ...

, helped shape underground

alternative rap Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising " hip hop groups that refuse to confor ...

, bringing it into the mainstream. Both

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 s ...

and

have gone on to greater commercial and critical success in their solo careers. In 2001, Black Star performed "Money Jungle" with

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

and John Patton for the

Red Hot Organization Red Hot Organization (RHO) is a not-for-profit, 501(c) 3, international organization dedicated to fighting AIDS through pop culture. Since its inception in 1989, over 400 artists, producers and directors have contributed to over 15 compilati ...

's compilation album ''

Red Hot + Indigo Red Hot + Indigo is the 13th entry from the Red Hot AIDS benefit series of compilation albums produced by Paul Heck. It marks the tenth anniversary of the Red Hot Organization (RHO), an international organization which uses mass media as a fundra ...

'', a tribute to

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

awareness and fighting the disease. In 2002, the song "Hater Players" was used in an episode of ''

The Wire ''The Wire'' is an American Crime film, crime drama Television show, television series created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon. The series was broadcast by the cable network HBO in the United States. ''The ...

'', " The Cost". In 2005, hip hop website TheSituation.co.uk reported Kweli said that a new Black Star album was "in the pipeline". A second album, to be produced entirely by

Madlib Otis Jackson Jr. (born October 24, 1973), known professionally as Madlib, is an American DJ, music producer, multi-instrumentalist, and rapper. He is widely known for his collaborations with MF DOOM (as Madvillain), J Dilla (as Jaylib), ...

, was confirmed to be finished in November 2019. It was announced in 2022 that the album would be titled ''

''. It was released on May 3 exclusively on the podcast platform Luminary.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

Other collaborations

*1997: "Fortified Live", "Freestyle" from Rawkus Compilation, "

Soundbombing ''Soundbombing'' is a hip hop compilation album by Rawkus Records, released on October 14, 1997. The album helped launch the careers of Mos Def and Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek), who later became Rawkus's most popular artists. ''Sou ...

" *1999: "Know That" from Mos Def's album, ''

Black on Both Sides ''Black on Both Sides'' is the debut solo studio album by American rapper Mos Def, released on October 12, 1999, by Rawkus and Priority Records. Prior to its recording, Mos Def had collaborated with Talib Kweli for the album '' Mos Def & Talib ...

'' *1999: "Little Brother", '' The Hurricane (soundtrack)'' *2000: "This Means You", produced by DJ Hi-Tek on the album ''

Train Of Thought The train of thought or track of thought refers to the interconnection in the sequence of ideas expressed during a connected discourse or thought, as well as the sequence itself, especially in discussion how this sequence leads from one idea to ...

'' *2001: "Money Jungle" from the

's album ''

'' *2002: "Joy" from Talib Kweli's album, ''

Quality Quality may refer to: Concepts *Quality (business), the ''non-inferiority'' or ''superiority'' of something *Quality (philosophy), an attribute or a property *Quality (physics), in response theory *Energy quality, used in various science discipli ...

'' *2002: "Brown Sugar (Raw)", ''

Brown Sugar (soundtrack) ''Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Brown Sugar'' is the soundtrack to Rick Famuyiwa's 2002 film ''Brown Sugar''. It was released on September 24, 2002 through MCA Records, and consists of hip hop and R&B music. The album peaked at number ...

'' *2004: "Beautiful (Black Star remix)", a remix of the

Mary J. Blige Mary Jane Blige ( ; born January 11, 1971) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Often referred to as the " Queen of Hip-Hop Soul" and " Queen of R&B", Blige has won nine Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, four American Music Award ...

song Beautiful, featured on the single of the song *2005: "Supreme Supreme" from Talib Kweli's album, '' Right About Now'' *2005: "Bright as the Stars" from Mos Def's single, "Ah Ha" *2005: "What It Is" from Talib Kweli's mixtape, ''The Beautiful Mixtape Vol. 2'' *2006: "Born & Raised" from the soundtrack, ''

Dave Chappelle's Block Party ''Dave Chappelle's Block Party'', also known as ''Block Party'', is a 2005 American documentary film hosted and written by comedian Dave Chappelle, and directed by Michel Gondry. The film and its soundtrack are dedicated to the memory of music pr ...

'' *2009: "History", from Mos Def's album ''

The Ecstatic ''The Ecstatic'' is the fourth album by American rapper Mos Def, released on June 9, 2009, by the independent record label Downtown Records. After venturing further away from hip hop with an acting career and two poorly received albums, Mos Def ...

'' *2010: " Just Begun", from

Reflection Eternal Reflection Eternal is an American hip hop duo composed of emcee Talib Kweli and producer Hi-Tek. They released their first album, ''Train of Thought'', in 2000. They have since released a mixtape, ''The RE: Union'', in late December 2009, and t ...

song also featuring

Jay Electronica Elpadaro F. Electronica Allah (born Timothy Elpadaro Thedford; September 19, 1976), known professionally as Jay Electronica (stylized as J A Y E L E C T R O N I C A), is an American rapper and record producer. Born and raised in New Orleans, he ...

& J. Cole, ''

Revolutions per Minute Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' *2011: "You Already Knew", from ''Black Star Aretha'', the two's tribute to Aretha Franklin.

References

External links

Talib Kweli
– official website
Black Star
discography at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Star African-American musical groups American musical duos Hip hop duos Hip hop groups from New York City Musical groups established in 1997 Musical groups from Brooklyn Native Tongues Posse 1997 establishments in New York City