Words Are Enough: Mos Def

Emerging from the underground New York hip-hop scene in the mid-90s, Mos Def had appeared on tracks by da Bush Babies and De La Soul, but he truly announced his arrival with 1997's Universal Magnetic, which opens with Mos Def rapping unadorned over a simple beat. Seeking to educate the listener, he brings things back to basics: the alphabet:

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A B boys rock the world / CDs and tapes help generate papes / EF is the important Def / G good H is what the style be / When I grab the microphone and MC / Roll off the tongue like L M N O P / And when I am done you will agree / Mos Def represent most definitely

Def proclaims his prowess, as would any emcee, but in a humbler mode than most. Yet his skill is evident in the rap itself, which carries the track forward on the strength of its words and without much production, aside from the murky sample of Planet Rock by Africa Bambaataa, a customary nod by Def to his roots.

In 1998, Def teamed up with rapper Talib Kweli and producer Hi-Tek to release Black Star, a tight, imaginative album whose lyrical content largely steers clear of the lush production and gangstas-bling-and-bitches then defining much of rap's mainstream. Here are a pair of emcees whose work is thematically sophisticated and socially conscious. Flowing over loose, jazzy tracks, Def and Kweli's words evoke a sense of family, friends and lovers, history and heritage, and intelligence. In short, their world but not necessarily the gangsta/playa world. In Astronomy (8th Light), Def spins out a string of similes on the meaning of black:

Black like my baby girl's stare / Black like the veil that the Muslimina wear / Black like the planet that they fear, why they scared? / Black like the slave ship that later brought us here / Black like the cheeks that are roadways for tears / that leave black faces well traveled with years / Black like assassin crosshairs / Blacker than my granddaddy armchair / He never really got no time to chill there / Cause this life is warfare, warfare

Fatherhood, religion, history, sorrow, the slayings of Dr. King and Malcom X, struggle — all these concepts are suggested in a handful of lines.

On the track that follows, Definition, the two emcees lay out more clearly what they are up to: positioning themselves as different. They sing in the chorus,

One two three / Mos Def and Talib Kweli / Best alliance in hip-hop, why-oh / I said one two three / It's kind of dangerous to be an emcee / They shot Tupac and Biggie / Too much violence in hip-hop, why-oh

And, as it continues, the lyrics on Definition are as ferocious and confident as anything on Black Star, with Def and Kweli trading turns to head off challenges from those who could dare doubt their skills. In a dense, cocksure passage, Def closes the deal in his final turn on the track:

Still sippin wishin' well water, imported, from Pluto / Three hundred and sixty milliliters for all our believers / In miles or kilometers, most cats cannot proceed us / in the jungle with the leaders we the lions you the cheaters / A cypher will complete us if we come through your receivers / You can play us and repeat us and then take us home and read us / (Line for line) Good Jesus, Mos Def and Kweli just / Make a pussy freeze up thinkin we will ease up

The message to all: we know how to rap, and we live by different rules.

A year later, Def released his outstanding solo effort, Black on Both Sides, one of the best musical releases of 1999. Always looking at the bigger picture, Def wastes little time in the opening track, Fear Not of Man, which opens with a loose conversation about the state of hip-hop and the people in general, but quickly turns to matters of spirituality, mortality and individual responsibility. In the chorus, Def puts his life in a broad perspective:

All over the world hearts pound with the rhythm / Fear not of men because men must die / Mind over matter and soul before flesh / Angels for the pain keep a record in time / which is passin' and runnin' like a caravan freighter / The world is overrun with the wealthy and the wicked / But God is sufficient in disposin' of affairs / Gunmen and stockholders try to merit my fear / But God is sufficient over plans they prepared / Mos Def in the flesh, where you at, right here / on this place called Earth, holdin down my square

On Black on Both Sides, Def also picks up on threads from his earlier work. Ms. Fat Booty tells the funny, sexy (and respectful) story of Mos' encounters with a beautiful woman he keeps running into around town — a return to the appreciative view of women heard on Black Star's "Brown Skin Lady." The lovely, jazz-essenced "Umi" recalls the cosmic consciousness-building of Astronomy (8th Light). And the pride and happiness of "Brooklyn" is as fond of the rich life of the streets of New York's neighborhoods as anything Kweli and Def did together.

But, most clearly on Black on Both Sides, Def claims a rich cultural heritage for his music in Hip-Hop and Rock and Roll, citing influences and predecessors like Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, John Lee Hooker, James Brown, Otis Redding, Albert King, Jimi Hendrix, as well as Bad Brains and Fishbone. "You may dig on the Rolling Stones," he sings, "But they didn't come up with that shit on they own."For better and for worse, Def's insists on the central importance of black artists in rock and roll. Jumping ahead half a decade, this conviction would lead to his involvement in the hard rock band Black Jack Johnson — a sort of rap/funk/metal supergroup made up of Mos and members of Living Colour, Bad Brains and Parliament. Enter Def's 2004 release, The New Danger, which, some would argue, is really a Black Jack Johnson album. Aside from a handful of tracks — "War," "Ghetto Rock," and "Sex, Love, and Money" — The New Danger lacks the focus of his earlier work. There's ambition, but not the execution. Black Jack Johnson may be a good idea, but louder doesn't necessarily mean more thoughtful or interesting.

Def's biggest liability is his talent and versatility. He is a gifted actor in film (The Woodsman, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and on stage (Topdog/Underdog), and he is a respectable singer. As Def puts it, "My restlessness is my nemesis." Nevertheless, almost whatever Mos does is worth paying attention to — in any medium, either on his own or in collaboration with others. He always is careful and thoughtful in what he does, and there's much to be learned by keeping up. In the end, one can look at the track "Mathematics" on Black on Both Sides for reassurance of his lyrical gifts. Much like his use of letters in "Universal Magnetic," Def hangs his arguments on numbers — in both a poetic and statistical way — breaking down a world of complexity into the basics, this time, of one, two and three:

Yo, check it one for Charlie Hustle, two for Steady Rock / Three for the fourth comin' live, future shock / It's five dimensions, six senses / Seven firmaments of heaven to hell, 8 million stories to tell / Nine planets faithfully keep in orbit / with the probable tenth, the universe expands length / The body of my text possess extra strength / Power-liftin' powerless up, out of this, towerin' inferno ... / It's a number game, but shit don't add up somehow / Like I got, sixteen to thirty-two bars to rock it / but only 15 percent of profits, ever see my pockets like / 69 billion in the last twenty years / spent on national defense but folks still live in fear like / nearly half of America's largest cities is one-quarter black

That's why they gave Ricky Ross all the crack / Sixteen ounces to a pound, twenty more to a ki / A five-minute sentence hearing and you no longer free ... / Young bloods can't spell but they could rock you in PlayStation / This new math is whippin' motherfuckers ass / You wanna know how to rhyme you better learn how to add / It's mathematics.

— Mark Hayes (mark.e.hayes at gmail dot com)