Nigga”, a stereotypical Black person who no matter their accomplishments, can’t shake the stereotypes. You are treated by everyone as just another “Mr. Which is surprising since this song tackles the topic of how no matter how successful you are or presentable you are, if you’re an African American, you are simply just not treated the same as if you were the exact same person, except with white skin. This track features a very chill Mos, as opposed to his pretty aggressive flow and sound. Nigga– We get a Q-Tip feature on this one, but it’s only a hook nonetheless very effective and awesome. Another for sure highlight on this album. He talks about how much harder life is in Brooklyn and how you are really unique if you’re from there. In the third part he samples the beat of BK’s finest’s “Who Shot Ya?”. Throughout the track he raps about his hometown of Brooklyn. The chemistry between these two is incredible, and it’s really too bad we only got one Black Star album.īrooklyn– Fascinating track that is broken up into three parts and contains three different beats. Keep in mind this was 3 years before Kweli dropped his solo debut and a year before his group with Hi-Tek, Reflection Eternal, dropped their debut and yet Kweli’s rhymes on this song make him sound like a veteran. We get an amazing Black Star collabo that is backed by a beat that is driven by a simple boom bap beat along with a Dionne Warwick sample. Know That– I feel like I can say this about 5 or 6 tracks on this album, but this might be my favorite. After, and including, the first hook Busta and Mos drop 8 bars and then send it to the other one to drop 8 of their own and they keep going back and forth and the exchange is glorious. This is especially amazing because Mos Def’s lyrics were on point, per as usual but this was 1999, so Busta was on the top of his game as well. They eventually hit it off and you know ya boi Mos, in his words, “smashed it like an Idaho potato”.ĭo It Now– This is one of the best songs on the album, Mos and Busta go rhyme for rhyme throughout the track and its simply incredible. Next thing he knows he’s at a party with Q-Tip and his friends and this chick is there too. He was so mesmerized by her incredible ass that he just had to talk to her, but when he asked to dance she left. Mos raps about his experience with this girl throughout three different scenes. Ms Fat Booty– This track samples Aretha Franklin’s “One Step Ahead” for the hook and you can her croons in the background throughout the song.

Mos doesn’t normally have a outlet or way to voice his opinions on things where enough people will listen, but when he, or anyone, puts it to music he is able to convey his message much more effectively and have it spread farther. Hip Hop– Mos goes in hard on this track he talks about the importance of hip hop. A year later, he and Talib Kweli dropped their acclaimed group album in 1998 and the year after that, Mos Def dropped his solo debut Black on Both Sides The first we really heard of Mos was on Rawkus’s label album Soundbombing where he appeared several times and was impressive and was a signal of great things to come. In 1996 Mos Def signed to Rawkus Records, which has signed such big names as Eminem, El-P, Talib Kweli, and Pharoahe Monch. However in my opinion, this album was his best work. Black on Both Sides was his first solo album, and arguably his best while an argument can be made that his 2009 The Ecstatic or 1998’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star were better. Today he goes by Yasiin Bey, but when he was still releasing music he was Mos Def so that’s how we’ll refer to him. If you know anything about hip hop, you know who Mos Def is. With the 15th anniversary of this legendary album coming up next month, it is only appropriate that we start this new feature off with this legendary hip hop album. Every Thursday we will be reviewing albums that are considered “classic”.

Mos def the ecstatic review