Best Known As: Rapper and co-star of the movie The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Name at birth: Dante Terrell Smith
Mos Def is a critically-acclaimed hip-hop star who is also known to movie audiences for his roles in The Italian Job (2003, with Mark Wahlberg) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005, starring Zooey Deschanel). Def hit the music scene in the late 1990s, first gaining attention for the underground hit "Universal Magnetic." With Talib Kweli he formed the group Black Star and made a name for himself as a non-gangsta, socially conscious rapper who earned critical praise, if not multi-platinum record sales. After his first solo album, 1999's Black on Both Sides, Mos Def the actor began to get as much attention as Mos Def the hip-hop artist, in films such as Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000) and in Monster's Ball (2001, with Halle Berry and Billy Bob Thornton). By 2004 he'd had a second successful album, The New Danger, appeared in the thriller The Italian Job and earned an Emmy nomination for a lead role in the HBO movie Something The Lord Made. Since then he's appeared in movies like 16 Blocks (2006) and Cadillac Records (2008, playing Chuck Berry), and in TV shows like The Boondocks (2005-08, the animated series created by Aaron McGruder), and Dexter (2011). Mos Def's other albums include True Magic (2006) and The Ecstatic (2009).
Mos Def has collaborated with many other stars of hip-hop, including De La Soul, Kanye West, Busta Rhymes and Macy Gray.
Born Dante Terrell Beze on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY.
Career
Formed his first group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother and sister; appeared as "Richard" in God Bless the Child on television, 1988; played "Raymond Kirkland" on TV's You Take the Kids, 1990; appeared in NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, 1994; released UTD single, "My Kung Fu," 1994; joined the Native Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul; made cameo appearances on De La Soul's "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees's "Love Song"; appeared on TV's Spin City, 1996; released debut single "The Universal Magnetic," on Rawkus Records, 1996; released "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, 1998; released debut album (with Talib Kweli), Black Star, 1998; released Black on Both Sides, 1999; played "Julius" in Spike Lee's film, Bamboozled, 2000; headlined the Lyricist Lounge Tour, 2000; made guest appearances on MTV's spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, 2000; appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, MTV, 2001.
Life's Work
Rapper, activist, and actor Mos Def found a vehicle for his socially conscious beliefs in hip-hop music. The Brooklyn native grew up in the "golden age" of hip-hop and became such a powerful voice that the United Nations invited him to speak and perform at what was called the peace conference of the century. Jonathan Perry in the Boston Globe called Mos Def an "outspoken, politically minded rapper whose positivist messages of unity, freedom, and self-knowledge found their way onto seminal hip-hop albums" like Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are...Black Star in 1998 and Mos Def's debut solo release, 1999's Black on Both Sides.
Mos Def was born Dante Terrell Beze (some sources say his last name is Smith) on December 11, 1973, and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York. He started rhyming at age nine. He grew up in the Brooklyn projects during the "golden age" of hip-hop, a time of seminal hip-hop artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Eric B. and Rakim. "It was as if the Black Panthers had been a musical group," he said of these musicians in an interview with Black Book, "generating very serious social criticism, and not just criticism absent of solution." Mos Def excelled in schools for the gifted and in a yearlong internship with the human rights organization Amnesty International. Mos Def pursued his talent for hip-hop, which he described in Black Book as "this generation's fire and passion applied to sound."
Mos Def got his start in acting as a teenager. He first appeared on television as "Richard" in God Bless the Child in 1988 and played "Raymond Kirkland" on You Take the Kids in 1990. He also appeared in episodes of NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV developed a spin-off series called Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Def made guest appearances. He also appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, on television in 2001. On the big screen, Mos Def appeared in Spike Lee's film, Bamboozled, which satirized television. In it, he played Julius, the leader of a radical rap group called the Mau Maus, who changes his name to Big Black Africa. He contributed to the soundtrack of Hurricane, which stars Denzel Washington.
Mos Def formed his first group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother and sister, and released a UTD single, "My Kung Fu," in 1994. He was invited to join the Native Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. He then made cameo appearances on De La Soul's single "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees's "Love Song." He released his own debut single "The Universal Magnetic," on the seminal independent hip-hop label Rawkus Records in 1996. Another Rawkus single, "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, followed in 1998. Mos Def began working with like-minded community activist Talib Kweli, and the two recorded a full-length release called Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are...Black Star. Out in 1998, the album became one of the hottest hip-hop releases of the year.
In 1999 Time magazine reported that three acts, including the Roots, Q-Tip, and Mos Def, were leading a "new movement" in hip-hop. "All three are creating hip-hop that's more personal, political, and spiritual," wrote Christopher John Farley in Time, "than the bulk of what passes for Top-40 rap today." Mos Def fit this new movement because his lyrics were socially conscious and his music was considered among the best in hip-hop. His voice became so powerful the United Nations invited him to The Hague to speak and perform at what was deemed the peace conference of the century. He accepted the invitation but insisted on paying his own way. Acts like his are rare, he said, because the music industry stifles them. "There is a community of artists in hip-hop who have made politically and socially conscious music," he told Black Book, "but the corporate structure does whatever it can to frustrate the efforts of these artists."
Mos Def has never been completely comfortable being labeled a socially conscious artist. He felt it alienated him somewhat from the hip-hop community as a whole. "So often, artists like myself...are referred to as alternative or conscious," Mos Def was quoted as saying in his bio. "To me, that's like another code word to diminish your attachments to the community, to black people. You're sort of like this foreign, distant element that people may admire from a distance but they don't have any real closeness to, it's not intimate to them, it's not of them."
Mos Def's highly anticipated debut full-length album came out in 1999. Black on Both Sides "is a tightrope walk across diverse hip-hop styles," wrote critic Matt Diehl in Entertainment Weekly. "Merging old-school bravado with new-school poetics, the Brooklyn legend spouts incisive Afrocentric reality that takes all sides into account." According to a critic in CMJ New Music Report, Black on Both Sides "is a poignant celebration of black culture through masterful lyricism and advanced sonic knowledge." Another CMJ critic wrote the album "is simply one of the most unhindered and aesthetically ambitious hip-hop records in recent memory... . Free of the self-imposed limitations that often hinder other rap acts." Black on Both Sides was certified gold.
In 2000 Mos Def headlined the 18-city Lyricist Lounge Tour 2000 with Talib Kweli, Punch & Words, Master Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, and others. He took the stage with an all-star band which included Sugarhill Gang/Living Colour bassist Doug Wimbish, Bad Brains guitarist Dr. Know, and Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell. The rapper incorporated a variety of styles into his set, including the Temptations' classic, "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)" and Bob Marley's reggae song, "Waiting in Vain." The hour-long set was "by turns celebratory ... devotional ... and scathing," wrote Boston Globe correspondent Jonathan Perry in a review of a Lyricist Lounge performance. Mos Def "demonstrated that his skills as an artist don't merely begin and end with hip-hop," Perry wrote. "...Mos Def's turn at the mike was marvelously unpredictable and satisfyingly self-assured."
Mos Def has always been outspoken on the state of contemporary culture and media. "In terms of what certain media outlets show you, it's very one-dimensional," he told Newsweek. "It's not just hip-hop music--TV and movies in general are very narrow. Sex, violence, the underbelly, with junkies, prostitutes, alcoholics, gamblers. The new trend today is depravity." He has been equally critical of the music industry and the repetitious, uninspired product it cranks out. "If all you make available is acorns," he continued, "people will eat the ... acorns." He believes that violence in music is a reflection of the violence in culture, rather than an inspiration for it. "Artists," he continued, "are only going to repeat what the climate is saying. America is extremely violent and oppressive to a lot of different folks. It's very hostile to youth, only treating them like consumers--or addicts. It's terminal consumerism. What's going on in media is just a symptom of the real sickness."
Works
Selected discography
Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are ... Black Star, Rawkus, 1998.
Black on Both Sides, Rawkus, 1999.
Further Reading
Periodicals
Black Book, Spring 2000, p. 169.
Boston Globe, September 29, 2000, p. C9.
Entertainment Weekly, November 5, 1999, p. 82.
Newsweek, October 9, 2000, p. 58.
Time, December 6, 1999, p. 96.
Online
All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (July 10, 2001).
Mos Def may seem, to the casual observer, like a rare example of a musician successfully transitioning into acting, but in truth, his acclaimed music career did not take off until long after he'd cemented himself as a working actor. Nonetheless, the man has built both his music and film careers on a foundation of integrity, earning him critical praise and audience approval for both. His contributions to the underground hip-hop scene started with the 1996 single "Universal Magnetic," a rare example of introspection in a genre dominated by blustering and callousness. Def's film debut, however, came almost ten years before, when he appeared in the 1988 TV movie God Bless the Child at the age of 15. Then going by his birth name, Dante Terrell Smith, Mos Def landed appearances on shows like Here and Now, The Cosby Mysteries, Brooklyn South, Spin City, and NYPD Blue. The spots sustained his career throughout the '90s, as did his roles in feature films like Bamboozled and MTV's Carmen: A Hip Hopera. Slowly but steadily becoming a recognizable face in acting, Mos Def continued to take parts in high-quality films, even if this meant a lower profile for himself as an actor. His supporting roles in Monster's Ball, Brown Sugar, The Italian Job, and The Woodsman, however, garnered him attention on talent alone. In 2004, he co-starred in the HBO movie Something the Lord Made with Alan Rickman and was honored with an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie, along with Rickman. By the time Def appeared in 2005's Golden Globe award-winning HBO miniseries Lackawanna Blues alongside Terrence Howard and S. Epatha Merkerson, he was a recognized and sought-after face in film. Def soon afterward donned a British accent for a leading role in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, giving audiences a taste of his comedic skills. His next role was far more dramatic in nature, however, when he played a key witness hoping to avoid assassination in Richard Donner's 16 Blocks, co-starring with Bruce Willis. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi
Born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY.
Began rhyming at age nine; formed his first group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother and sister; appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child on television, 1988; played Raymond Kirkland on TV’s You Take the Kids, 1990; appeared in NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, 1994; released UTD single, “My King Fu,” 1994; joined the Native Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul; made cameo appearances on De La Soul’s “Big Brother Beat” and the Bush Babees’ “Love Song”; appeared on television’s Spin City, 1996; released debut single “The Universal Magnetic,” on Rawkus Records, 1996; released “Body Rock,” featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest, 1998; with Talib Kweli, released debut album, Black Star, 1998; released Black on Both Sides, 1999; played Julius in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, 2000; headlined the Lyricist Lounge Tour, 2000; made guest appearances on MTV’s spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, 2000; appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, on television, 2001; made Broadway debut in Topdog/Underdog, 2002; appeared in film Brown Sugar, 2002.
Addresses:Record company—Rawkus Records, 676 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York, NY 10012. Website—Mos Def Official Website: http://www.mosdefinitely.com.
Rap musician
Rapper Mos Def’s brand of hip-hop music is a socially conscious departure from image-driven gangsta rap. Def came up in Brooklyn, New York, during hip-hop’s golden years and emerged a multi-talented and celebrated hip-hop artist, actor, and activist. "The last few years have witnessed the transformation of Brooklyn rapper Mos Def from underground icon to overground star," Richard Harrington wrote in the Washington Post in 2002. According to Jonathan Perry in the Boston Globe, Def has earned his "reputation as an outspoken, politically minded rapper whose positivist messages of unity, freedom, and self-knowledge found their way" onto his 1998 album Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are … Black Star and his 1999 album Black on Both Sides, two of the most acclaimed hip-hop releases of the 1990s. His lyrics also earned Def international renown as a champion for human rights and equality. As an actor, he has appeared in such films as Bamboozled, Monster’s Ball, and Brown Sugar, and in 2002 he performed on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog.
Mos Def’s given name is Dante Terrell Smith. He was born December 11, 1973, and he was raised, the eldest of 12 children, in the projects of the Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He grew up listening to pioneering hip-hop artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Eric B and Rakim. At age nine Def started writing rhymes that echoed the socially and politically conscious lyrics of these artists. He was a gifted student, and he interned for a year with the human rights organization Amnesty International.
The talented hip-hop artist actually started in entertainment as an actor, not a rapper. His first turn on stage was in a production of Free to Be You and Me in fifth grade. As a teen, he acted in school plays, off-Broadway, and in community theater. He was credited as Dante Terrell Smith after high school on television. He appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child in 1988 and played Raymond Kirkland on You Take the Kids in 1990. He also appeared in episodes of NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV developed a spin-off series called Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Def made guest appearances. He played the villainous Lt. Miller in an updated version of the classic opera Carmen called Carmen: A Hip Hopera on MTV in 2001, and he hosted HBO’s Def Poetry Jam in 2002.
While he was working as an actor in the late 1980s, Def would wander to Washington Square Park in New York, where he could hone his skills among the aspiring young rappers there. Mos Def’s first musical effort was a family affair. Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), the group he formed with his brother and sister, released a single, "My King Fu," in 1994. He then joined seminal hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa’s Native Tongues collective, which included the hip-hop groups A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. His work with Native Tongues parlayed into cameo appearances on the De La Soul song "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees’
"Love Song." Mos Def’s own debut single, "The Universal Magnetic," was released on the independent hip-hop label Rawkus Records in 1996. His follow-up, 1998’s "Body Rock," featured Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.
After standing in the shadows of other acts, Mos Def came into his own as a duo with fellow hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, whom he met in their Washington Square Park days. Their full-length 1998 release, Mos Defand Talib Kweli Are… Black Star, was lauded by critics and fans and set a new standard for serious, socially conscious hip-hop. "I was in L.A. right after the album came out and I’m on stage performing and I’m lookin’ at people reciting words of the songs off the album. And I’m like, ‘Am I seein’ this right? I know this record has not been out that long.’ The record came out in October and by January it was gold. Everything changed," he recalled in a 2002 interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My creative possibilities just started to explode."
In addition to his politically aware music, Mos Def also gets behind activist causes. He was heavily involved in two projects to protest the 1999 shooting death of Haitian immigrant Amadou Diallo by New York City police officers. He put together the Hip-Hop for Respect EP, which targeted the issue of police brutality, and appeared on The Price of Freedom… Is Truth (The Amadou Project). He was invited to speak and perform at a United Nations peace conference. Def and Kweli also own an Afrocentric bookstore in Brooklyn.
When Def made the jump to the big screen, some saw him as just another in a line of hip-hop artists to try their hand at acting—rappers Will Smith, Ice Cube, and Queen Latifah all had made names for themselves in Hollywood—but Def had to remind critics that he had been acting for years. "When I started doing films, they thought it was just a clever publicity scheme," he told the New York Times Magazine in a 2002 interview. "But I had been long doing both." He played Julius, the leader of a radical rap group called the Mau Maus, who changes his name to Big Black Africa, in Spike Lee’s 2000 film Bamboozled, which satirizes television. He appeared in the controversial 2001 film Monster’s Ball and in the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar. His music is featured on the soundtrack of The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington.
Mos Def’s 1999 full-length solo recording debut, Black on Both Sides, lived up to expectations. In addition to gold certification for sales, it was celebrated by critics and fans. The album "is a tightrope walk across diverse hip-hop styles," wrote critic Matt Diehl in Entertainment Weekly. "Merging old-school bravado with new-school poetics, the Brooklyn legend spouts incisive Afrocentric reality that takes all sides into account." Arguments with his label, MCA, stalled any further releases. "I’m not sure they know whether or not slavery is over," he said in a 2002 interview with Robin Finn of the New York Times. He headlined the popular 18-city Lyricist Lounge Tour 2000 with Talib Kweli, Punch & Words, Master Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, and others.
Def made his Broadway debut in 2002 in Suzan-Lori Parks’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog. Def played a con man named Booth who has a difficult relationship with his older brother, Lincoln, also a con man, played by Jeffrey Wright. "It’s a very real human play about two brothers and their relationship to each other, their rivalry, their need for each other, their history," Def told Richard Harrington in the Washington Post. "It’s a modern play about two young black men in modern times and the universal issues of family and abandonment, the human condition." Both the play and Mos Def’s performance were well received. "The acclaim for Topdog seems destined to vault Mos Def’s acting career to a new level," Mark Binelli wrote in Rolling Stone in a 2002 article. Def’s song "3-Card" appears on the stage play’s soundtrack, which features jazz, blues, R&B, and hip-hop music.
In addition to eight performances a week during his run in Top Dog/Underdog, Def also led a rock-rap band, the Black Jack Johnson Project. Named after the first African American heavyweight boxing champion, the group is made up of Def on vocals, Living Colour’s Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish on drums and bass, respectively, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Dr. Know, the former guitarist for the punk-reggae band the Bad Brains, of which Def was a longtime fan. Def referred to the Bad Brains and Fishbone in his 1999 song "Rock ‘n’ Roll." Def’s artistic goal with the Project was to create a true blend of rock and rap, which he did not hear in existing so-called fusion projects. Most rock-influenced hip-hop acts are "not taking advantage of either genre, not for my tastes as either a hip-hop fan or a rock fan. I’m not hearing a true fusion," he told Harrington in the Washington Post. "I wanted to do something where the rock ’n’ roll fans don’t feel neglected or patronized and the hip-hop fans don’t feel that way, either. This could be like a real exchange … and show that hip-hop is an extension of that rock ‘n’ roll and blues tradition…" Def’s effort was apparent to listeners, according to music critic Craig Smith in the Washington Post: "While the band has been categorized as rock and roll, it utilized blues elements, reggae refrains, and even gospel phrasings." The group debuted at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in April of 2001.
Selected discography Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are … Black Star, Rawkus, 1998. Black on Both Star, Rawkus, 1998.
Sources Periodicals Billboard, August 3, 2002, p. 16. Boston Globe, September 29, 2000, p. C9. Entertainment Weekly, November 5, 1999, p. 82; April 12, 2002, p. 32. Essence, July 2002, p. 74. Jet, May 6, 2002, p. 46. New York Times, April 19, 2002, p. B2; October 11, 2002, p. 26. New York Times Magazine, March 31, 2002. Rolling Stone, May 10, 2001, p. 97; May 23, 2002, p. 51. Time, December 6, 1999, p. 96. Washington Post, January 11, 2002, p. WW6; January 14, 2002, p. C3.
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.
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. The Ecstatic, released on the Universal-distributed Downtown label, followed in June 2009; at that point, Mos Def had significant acting roles in Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind (in which he co-starred with Jack Black) and Cadillac Records (he played Chuck Berry). ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi
Although he was initially recognized for his musical output, since the early 2000s, Mos Def's screen work has established him as one of only a handful of rappers who have garnered critical approval for their acting work. Mos Def has also been active in several social and political causes.
He has two younger brothers, Abdul Rahman (a.k.a. "Gold Medal Man"), who is Mos Def's full-time DJ, and Anwar Superstar. He also has a younger sister, Ces "Casey" Smith, and a younger half-brother, Jermone Victor Moulton, who resides in Brooklyn and shares the same mother, Sheron.[citation needed]
Mos Def converted to Islam. While his father was initially a member of the Nation of Islam and later an active member in the community of Imam Warith Deen Mohammed, who merged into mainstream Islam from the Nation, Mos Def was not exposed to Islam until the age of 13. At 19, he took his shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith. He is friends with Ali Shaheed Muhammad and Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.[2]
Career
Music
Mos Def began his music career in 1994 in the short-lived group Urban Thermo Dynamics with his younger brother D.c.Q and younger sister Ces. Despite their contract with Payday Records, the group only had two singles, and their debut album Manifest Destiny was not released until 2004, when it was distributed by Illson Media. In 1996, he emerged as a solo artist and worked with De La Soul and Da Bush Babees, before he released his own first single, "Universal Magnetic", which was a huge underground hit.[citation needed]
After the collapse of Rawkus, he signed to Interscope/Geffen Records, which released his second solo album The New Danger in 2004.[6]The New Danger contained a mix of several musical genres, including soul, blues, and rock and roll, performed with his rock band Black Jack Johnson, which contained members of the bands Bad Brains and Living Colour. The singles included "Sex, Love & Money" and the B-side "Ghetto Rock"; the latter went on to receive several Grammy Award nominations in 2004.
Mos Def's final solo album for Geffen Records, True Magic, was quietly released on December 29, 2006. True Magic features production from The Neptunes, Rich Harrison and Minnesota, among others.[citation needed] The album was released in a clear-case with no cover art. Neither Geffen nor Mos Def himself promoted the album at all, which is the main reason the album was received under the radar.
The song "Crime & Medicine" is essentially a cover of GZA's 1995 single "Liquid Swords", though it contains different verses. Also, the track "Undeniable" samples a version of the Barrett Strong/Norman Whitfield composition "Message from a Black Man". The song "Dollar Day" uses the same beat as Juvenile's "Nolia Clap".[7]
MTV reported that this album isn't a full version, but a teaser/promotional debut. A new version of the album would be released spring 2007, with updated songs and cover art. However, on October 17, 2007, Okayplayer reported, through discussions with Mos Def's management, that these rumors were unsubstantiated. The CD was intended to be released without promotion or cover art, as per Mos Def's request. There would be no future re-release.
On November 7, 2007, Mos Def performed live in San Francisco at a venue called The Mezzanine. This performance was recorded for an upcoming "Live in Concert" DVD. During this performance Mos Def announced that he would be releasing a new album to be called The Ecstatic. He sang a number of new tracks; in later shows, Def previewed tracks produced by Madlib and was rumored to be going to Kanye West for new material. Producer and fellow Def PoetAl Be Back stated that he would be producing as well.[8] The album was released on June 9, 2009; upon its release, only Madlib's production had made the cut, along with tracks by Preservation, The Neptunes, Mr. Flash, Madlib's brother Oh No, a song by J. Dilla, and Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Mos Def appears alongside Kanye West on the track "Two Words" from The College Dropout album, the track "Drunk And Hot Girls" and the bonus track "Good Night" off West's third major album, Graduation. In 2002, he released the 12" single Fine, which was featured in the Brown Sugar Motion Picture Soundtrack.[9]
Mos Def also appears on the debut album from fellow New Yorkers Apollo Heights on a track titled, "Concern." In October, he signed a deal with Downtown Records and appeared on a remix to the song "D.A.N.C.E." by Justice.[10] Mos Def appeared on Stephen Marley's album Mind Control on the song "Hey Baby." In 2009, Mos Def worked together with Somali rapper K'naan to produce the track "America" for K'naan's album Troubadour.[11]
In April 2008 he appeared on the title track for a new album by The Roots entitled Rising Down. The new single, Life In Marvelous Times, was made officially available through iTunes on November 4, 2008, and is available for stream on the Roots' website Okayplayer.
April 2009 saw him traveling to South Africa for the first time where he performed accompanied by The Robert Glasper Experiment at the renowned Cape Town International Jazz Festival. He enticed his bemused African following with an encore introduced by his own rendition of John Coltrane's "Love Supreme" followed by a sneak preview of the track "M.D. (Doctor)", much to the delight of the fans.[12]
Mos Def also designed two pairs of limited edition Converse shoes. The shoes were released to Foot Locker stores on August 1, 2009 in very limited amounts.[13]
In late 2009, Mos Def created a brand of clothing line with UNDRCRWN called the "Mos Def Cut & Sew Collection." All clothing items will be sold in select stores located around the U.S. and almost exclusively on the UNDRCRWN website.[14] 2009 also found Mos Def among the MCs collaborating with the Black Keys on the first Blakroc album, a project headed by the Black Keys and Damon Dash. Mos Def appeared with Jim Jones and the Black Keys on the Late Show with David Letterman to perform the Blakroc track "Ain't Nothing Like You (Hoochie Coo)".
In March 2010, Mos Def's song Quiet Dog Bite Hard was featured in Palm's "Life moves fast. Don't miss a thing." campaign.[15]
Mos Def features on the first single, "Stylo", from the third Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach, alongside soul legend Bobby Womack. He also appears on the track titled "Sweepstakes".
Mos Def has been an active contributor to the recovery of the oil spill in the Gulf, performing concerts and raising money towards the repair of the damages. In June 2010, he recorded a cover of the classic New Orleans song originally by Smokey Johnson, "It Ain't My Fault" with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lenny Kravitz and Trombone Shorty.
In September 2011, Mos Def announced that he planned to use the name Yasiin instead of Mos Def beginning in 2012.[17]
In January 2012, it was reported that Mos Def and Talib Kweli had begun "to resurrect" Black Star.[18]
Acting
He began his professional acting career at the age of fourteen, appearing in the TV movie God Bless the Child, starring Mare Winningham. He then played the oldest child in the short-lived family sitcom, You Take the Kids, starring Nell Carter and Roger E. Mosley. His most notable acting role before his music career was that of Bill Cosby's sidekick on the short-lived detective show, The Cosby Mysteries. He also starred in a 1996 Visa check card commercial featuring Deion Sanders. In 1997 he had a small role alongside Michael Jackson in his short film and music video "Ghosts".
In 2002, he played the role of Booth in Suzan-Lori Parks' Topdog/Underdog, a Tony-nominated and Pulitzer-winning Broadway play. He and co-star Jeffrey Wright won a Special Award from the Outer Critics Circle Award for their joint performance.[23] He also received positive notices as the quirky Left Ear in the blockbuster hit, The Italian Job in 2003.[24] He also appeared in 2003 in the music video You Don't Know My Name of the song by Alicia Keys.
In 2009, he appeared in the House episode entitled "Locked In" as a patient suffering from locked-in syndrome. His performance was well-received, with E! saying that Mos Def "delivers an Emmy-worthy performance."[37] He was also in the 2009 film Next Day Air.
In 2011, he began a multi-episode appearance on the Showtime television series Dexter. He played Brother Sam, an ex-con who has supposedly found religion despite finding himself in violent situations.[39]
By the early 1990s, a brand of socially conscious hip hop that had been pioneered and popularized by Public Enemy, KRS-One, and De La Soul, among others, had been eclipsed in popularity by gangsta rap. Mos Def, as well as Talib Kweli, The Roots, Common, and others, helped socially aware rap music experience something of a comeback in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Mos Def's collaboration with Talib Kweli, Black Star, was released during the aftermath of the deaths of 2Pac and The Notorious B.I.G. and focused on violence and negativity in hip-hop, in collaboration with other acts that did the same. His music has also made reference to his Islamic faith, and his contention that black artists receive little credit for their role in the birth of rock and roll.
In 2000, Mos Def performed a benefit concert for death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal.[40]
On Mos Def's 2004 album The New Danger, he took his penchant for experimentation to a new level. Most of the songs were more hip-hop flavored stylings of blues and rock, with fewer raps thrown in. This threw off fans who were expecting another full-blown rap album. The New Danger also featured the controversial song, "The Rape Over," a parody of Jay-Z's The Blueprint hit "Takeover". His label made him take the song off releases of the album, citing clearance issues with Jay-Z and The Doors, a band which the song samples. The song has garnered controversy over its veiled reference to Israeli-American record executive Lyor Cohen (the "tall Israeli" who then was head of The Island Def Jam Music Group).
In September 2005, Mos Def released the single "Katrina Clap," renamed "Dollar Day" for True Magic, (utilizing the instrumental for New Orleans rappers UTP's "Nolia Clap"). The song is a criticism of the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. On the night of the MTV Video Music Awards, Mos Def pulled up in front of Radio City Music Hall on a flatbed truck and began performing the "Katrina Clap" single in front of a crowd that quickly gathered around him. He was subsequently arrested despite having a public performance permit in his possession.[41]
In 1996, Def married Maria Yepes. After having two daughters, Chandani and Jauhara Smith, he filed for divorce in 2005.[44] The divorce became final in 2006.[citation needed] Two years later, Def's divorce lawyers Blank Rome sued Def for more than $60,000 in unpaid legal bills.[45]
In October, 2006 Mos Def appeared on 4Real, a documentary television series.[46] Appearing in the episode "City of God," he and the 4Real crew traveled to City of God, a slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to meet Brazilian MC MV Bill and discover the crime and social problems of the community.[47]
Nominated - Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Nominated - Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television
Nominated - Image Awards for Outstanding Actor in a Mini-Series or Television Movie
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