Mos DEFinite

Hey peoples!! Xcal is back in the building to give you a piece of my ever running mind(me and my brother call it thinking in patterns). As you can see from the title my next subject happens to be The Mighty Mos Def!

First let me start by giving a shout out to both Mos and my big cuz RhapsodE who opened for The Mighty Mos not to long ago. Now as for my connection with Mos Def I know him through his music and his acting. I identify with the music more because that is my M.O., my life blood...Period. My first introduction to Mos I want to say was around the time "Ms. Fat Booty" came out. Loved to song to death but because my ear was not to Hip-Hop like it is now I had to prior experience with him or the music he made. As I got older I started to more about Mos, but it was not only him. I was opened up to a new phase in Hip-Hop that was not all that new, but it was new to me. Being opened up to the likes of Mos, Common, Talib Kweli, Hi-Tek, Pharoahe Monch, and Black Star(Mos Def and Talib Kweli) gave me a look into what Hip-Hop really is and not for what most of the younger generation identify it as today. My introduction did not end there but had just begun.

My brother JT and I started working together when I was a freshman in high school. The four years I spent working with him shaped my view on Hip-Hop and dare I say kept me from the corruption that most kids were receiving do to the corporate Rap that was being spoon fed to them by the corporate juggernauts. Out of pure fate, in high school one of my best friends was a guy by the man of Ruben (we called him Ish). We exchanged music all the time because to expand our libraries, which were already huge, we had to rely on who had the lastest or the old joints that no one could get their hands on. One day after doing the weekly music exchange at my locker(which was the usual spot) he asked me if I had Mos Def's Black On Both Sides. Remembering the "Ms. Fat Booty" joint I asked if he had it and the next day I had a copy of it in my pale geeky palms. And the rest will be saved for another day cause I am sure you don't want to hear my trips down memory lane which were not that long ago.

For those who are not familer with the work of Mos here it is. His albums include Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star, Black On Both Sides, and The New Danger. As an actor Mos Def was in God Bless the Child(1988), You Take the Kids(1990), The Hard Way (1991), The Cosby Mysteries (1994), Ghost (1997), Brooklyn South (1997), Spin City (1998), Where's Marlowe? (1998), NYPD Blue (1998), Island of the Dead (2000), Bamboozled (2000), Carmen: A Hip-Hopera (2001), The Wayne Brady Show (2001), Monster's Ball (2001), Showtime (2002), Civil Brand (2002), Brown Sugar (2002), My Wife and Kids (2002), The Italian Job (2003), The Woodsman (2004), Chappelle's Show (2003-2004), Focused Digizine #1 (2004) , Something the Lord Made (2004), Lackawanna Blues (2005), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), The Boondocks (2005), 16 Blocks (2006), and Journey to the End of the Night (2006). I probably gave you more Mos Def than you can handle and half of the stuff I named off I have never seen him in. Have you?

At first I thought about writing this article a while back because I had not heard Mos Def blessing the mic in a while. Not to mention he said that he was only going to bless us with with one more album and is going to just act. At that point I had fainted and double-taked at the news. When the news of his album being worked on and pushed back numerous times, I gave up all hope and started to get use to Mos Def THE ACTOR(even though he was very funny in The Boondocks and in the Chappelle Show. Then came the day when I was listening to Little Brother mixtape and heard him going at it toe to toe with LB. I screamed like a nerd and ran around the house. When Rawkus Records: Best of Decade One came out and my brother J got me a copy I nerded out once again cause there was all the great Mos songs, plus more. My faith restored as Mos as an MC I was happy to receive any guest appearance or any hint of new rejuvenated Mos Def. Plus I knew in the back of my mind that Mos was not going to leave us with just The New Danger, which was Black Jack Johnson(Mos Def's rock group) heavy. And like a true Hip-Hop Head I was correct.

Last week the word came across the Hip-Hop wires that Mos Def was blessing us with new material and new shoes. Through a deal with Converse, Mos Def has a new shoe out called "Music." And his new album True Magic is due out September 26th via Geffen Records. So to all you Mos fans be happy he is back and better than ever. Now if we can just get him and Kweli to do another Black Star album i'll be happy.

Well Hip-Hop true believers, that is it for me I am going to make mince meat of these pixilated football players. I'm out like a light. Afrolutely!!!