He played the oldest child in the 1990 family sitcom You Take the Kids, shortly before it was cancelled.
#MOS DEF THE ECSTATIC ALBUM COVER MOVIE#
At the age of 14, he appeared in the TV movie God Bless the Child, which aired on ABC in 1988. Prior to his career in music, Mos Def first entered public life as a child actor, having played roles in television movies, sitcoms, and theater, some of which were under the name Dante Beze. His debut was followed by The New Danger (2004), True Magic (2006) and The Ecstatic (2009). In 1999, Mos Def released his solo debut, Black on Both Sides, under Rawkus and Priority Records. He was a major force in late-1990s underground hip hop while under Rawkus Records.
He subsequently formed the trio Black Star, alongside fellow Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kweli, and Cincinnati producer Hi-Tek and released their eponymous debut album in 1998. Best known for his music, Mos Def embarked on his hip hop career in 1994, alongside his siblings in the short-lived rap group Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), after which he appeared on albums by Da Bush Babees and De La Soul. Yasiin Bey ( / j æ ˈ s iː n ˈ b eɪ/ born Dante Terrell Smith December 11, 1973), better known by his former stage name Mos Def ( / ˈ m oʊ s ˈ d ɛ f/), is an American hip hop recording artist, actor, comedian, and activist from Brooklyn, New York City, New York.
Vocals, keyboards, bass guitar, sampler, drumsīlack Star, Kanye West, Blakroc, Busta Rhymes, Gorillaz, Massive Attack, Native Tongues Posse, Pharoahe Monch, Soulquarians, Talib Kweli, The Roots, Anwar Superstar Rapper, singer-songwriter, record producer, actor, activistīedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, United States But that's what it is.Mos Def performing at the 2012 Ilosaarirock festivalīrooklyn, New York City, New York, United States ''Don't call it a comeback,'' chimes Mos Def. ''Ten years ago we made history, they missing us'', raps Kweli. The penultimate History with former Black Star partner Talib Kweli, meanwhile, uses the Dilla beat to good effect, looking back but never lapsing into lazy nostalgia. Lead-off single Life In Marvellous Times sees him trace his days from 5th grade, ''the pre-crack era'', to the present, all to a dramatic electro soundtrack courtesy of Ed Banger associate Mr Flash. This somewhat patchwork approach to audio sourcing, though, hasn't muddied the clarity of Mos Def's narrative. They used to call Mos Def backpack rap, and on The Ecstatic, it's like he's made the term his own, zig-zagging across borders and pulling inspiration from all directions. But then Auditorium shoots back out East again, a Bollywood-tinged production from Madlib that sees Mos sharing the mic with Slick Rick on a track that weaves a tale of post-occupation conflict in Iraq. Next, Twilite Speedball pulls it back to grey cityscapes, all tight angles in dark alleys, boxed in by horns with Mos reeling off narcotics like a dealer looming from the shadows: ''Bad news and good dope… powder, potions, pills, smoke''. Supermagic erupts on a hacked-up sample of psychedelic Turkish songstress Selda Bagcan, tight rhymes spat over wailing guitar lines.
The opening run of tracks certainly sounds like an MC out to cover a lot of ground. Three years later, though, and The Ecstatic catches the former Black Star MC back on top of his game, lining up beats from Madlib, Oh No and J Dilla and tackling them with a new confidence, scope and narrative thrust. It's been three years since Mos Def's last album, True Magic, and that wasn't anything to crow about – a tossed-off botch of a record that screamed of contract-filler, suggesting Brooklyn rapper Dante Terrell Smith was enjoying his new life as Hollywood character actor so much that time spent back on the mic felt like time wasted.
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