Black Star

Black Star draws its name from the Black Star Line shipping company established by activist and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey. The project unites rappers Yasiin Bey, who previously recorded as Mos Def, and Talib Kweli. Though each had built separate careers over several years, the pair's 1998 debut Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star lifted their profile well past dedicated underground hip-hop followers, landing in the upper reaches of the Billboard 200 while sending both "Definition" and "Respiration" into the rap chart's Top Ten. The two later earned individual recognition as solo artists and occasionally reunited for performances and recordings, yet a follow-up Black Star full-length did not arrive until 2022 with No Fear of Time, an album made entirely by Madlib.

The two first crossed paths through freestyle sessions at Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan and shared stages at open-mike spoken-word gatherings. Bey had already formed one-third of Urban Thermo Dynamics, a sibling group that issued several singles on Payday/FFRR between 1994 and 1995 under the guidance of Salaam Remi, Diamond D, and J-Swift. Around that period Kweli made his earliest recorded appearance as an uncredited guest on Mood's 1994 track "Transmoreify," and he later appeared on multiple cuts from the Cincinnati crew's 1997 LP Doom. Those Midwest connections introduced Kweli to producer Hi-Tek, who became his partner in Reflection Eternal. The pair contributed "Freestyle" to the 1997 Rawkus anthology Soundbombing, but they formally introduced Black Star on the Rawkus label the following year with Hi-Tek's anti-violence single "Definition."

Exactly one month after that single reached stores, on September 29, the duo issued Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star. Although it arrived alongside Jay-Z's Vol. 2...Hard Knock Life, OutKast's Aquemini, A Tribe Called Quest's The Love Movement, and Brand Nubian's Foundation, the project achieved immediate commercial traction, entering the Billboard 200 at number 53. Soon hailed as a landmark release, the album generated two Top Ten rap-chart singles: "Definition" peaked at number three and "Respiration," again produced by Hi-Tek and featuring Common, reached number six. "Definition" also crossed over to number 60 on the Hot 100, an uncommon feat for an underground-leaning rap release. Beyond Hi-Tek, the set incorporated beats from Da Beatminerz, Shawn J. Period, 88-Keys, J. Rawls, and Ge-ology, with Kweli co-producing two tracks. Another key element came from jazz and R&B veteran Weldon Irvine, whose keyboards appear on "Astronomy (8th Light)." Bey and Kweli reciprocated by contributing to Irvine's The Amadou Project: The Price of Freedom.

Over the subsequent two decades Black Star output remained infrequent. Bey delivered his solo debut Black on Both Sides in 1999, while Kweli and Hi-Tek released the first Reflection Eternal album, Train of Thought, in 2000. Throughout the early 2000s the duo supplied occasional Black Star tracks to compilations and soundtracks, among them "Little Brother" for The Hurricane (produced by Jay Dee), "Money Jungle" with Ron Carter and Big John Patton for the Duke Ellington tribute Red Hot + Indigo, and "Brown Sugar (Raw)" for the Brown Sugar soundtrack (produced by Kanye West, in whose film Bey starred). The pair performed at Dave Chappelle's Block Party in 2004, later captured in the concert film of the same name, and continued sporadic joint appearances on each other's solo work. In 2011 they issued the Madlib-produced "Fix Up" along with a tribute track intended for an Aretha Franklin mixtape. A second proper album had reportedly been in development for more than five years by that point, finally surfacing in May 2022 exclusively via a subscription podcast network. Madlib handled all nine tracks, with guest spots limited to Black Thought and Yummy Bingham.