Mos Def

Emerging late in the 1990s as one of rap’s brightest new prospects, Mos Def (also known as Yasiin Bey) gradually shifted focus toward acting, leaving music as an occasional pursuit. Occasional new projects still surfaced, among them the 2004 album The New Danger, yet releases arrived sporadically and without apparent long-range planning. Even so, critics and dedicated underground listeners continued to follow his work closely, while the landmark early recordings—Black Star (1998), recorded with Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, and the solo debut Black on Both Sides (1999)—gained added stature with each passing year. He repeatedly channeled that visibility into activism, appearing at protests following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the Jena Six case in 2007.

Born Dante Terrell Smith Bey on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, New York, he began rhyming at nine and took his first professional acting job at fourteen in a television movie. After finishing high school he accumulated numerous small-screen credits, most prominently a 1994 appearance on the short-lived Bill Cosby vehicle The Cosby Mysteries. That same year he formed the group Urban Thermo Dynamics alongside his younger brother and sister, signing briefly with Payday Records without releasing anything substantial. His profile rose sharply in 1996 through guest spots on De La Soul’s “Big Brother Beat” and Da Bush Babees’ “S.O.S.” A year afterward he issued the solo single “Universal Magnetic” on Royalty Records, which became an underground favorite and secured a deal with the fledgling Rawkus label. There he teamed with Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek for the 1998 album Black Star, widely celebrated upon release. The follow-up solo effort Black on Both Sides arrived in 1999 and drew further acclaim, yet outside contributions to the Lyricist Lounge and Soundbombing compilations, new music remained scarce as acting opportunities multiplied.

In the early 2000s Mos Def appeared in Monster’s Ball, Bamboozled, Brown Sugar, and The Woodsman while also performing on Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning production Topdog/Underdog. Simultaneously he assembled the Black Jack Johnson collective with keyboardist Bernie Worrell, guitarist Dr. Know, drummer Will Calhoun, and bassist Doug Wimbish, aiming to reclaim rock—especially rap-rock hybrids—from acts such as Limp Bizkit, whom he publicly criticized. The all-Black ensemble played several intimate New York-area shows, and a handful of its recordings surfaced on The New Danger, released in October 2004.

Two years later, after roles in the Golden Globe-winning Lackawanna Blues and the Emmy-winning Something the Lord Made—both television movies—Mos Def issued True Magic (2006). A contractual obligation for Geffen, which had earlier absorbed Rawkus, the album received only a limited run in the final week of December, packaged without artwork inside a clear plastic case. Its single “Undeniable” nevertheless earned a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance. The Ecstatic followed in June 2009 on the Universal-distributed Downtown label, accompanied by prominent film parts in Michel Gondry’s Be Kind Rewind, where he shared the screen with Jack Black, and Cadillac Records, in which he portrayed Chuck Berry. That album garnered another Grammy nomination. Over the ensuing years he extended his acting credits while adding guest appearances to Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach, Robert Glasper Experiment’s Grammy-winning Black Radio, and A$AP Rocky’s At. Long. Last. A$AP, among other projects. In January 2016 an announcement posted on Kanye West’s website declared his retirement from entertainment after he contested a recent South African immigration-related arrest; the statement also confirmed a final album scheduled for later that year.