You couldn't stop Black Star even if you tried

By Sam Frank

For at least a year now, the mainstream music press has been abuzz with talk of hip-hop's "revival" as an independent, creative art form, even while Puffy and his extended family have gone about their beat-recycling and mint-making dirty business.

But none of the hyped hip-hop artists has had a commercial breakthrough equal to the hype he has received. Kool Keith is too weird, just as he was with the Ultramagnetic MCs years ago. Company Flow is too abrasive and just no fun. The vaunted "turntablists"--like the Invisibl Skratch Piklz and the X-Ecutioners--alternate between art-wank and sloppy attempts to go pop. Mostly, though, no artists in recent years have had enough vision to bringtheir music to a mass audience without simply diluting their message.

A few groups, namely A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, have managed to become popular in the past without compromising their style. With its recent release, Black Star has become their logical successor.

Mos Def and Talib Kweli have appeared on the Lyricist Lounge compilation with Q-Tip, opened for The Roots and De La, and generally lit a fire under the hip-hop world. Their live shows are notorious for Kweli's freestyles and amazing lyrics and for Mos Def's intense charisma (Spice Girl imitations and onstage pose-striking).

On their new album, Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, the pair's individual styles remain intact. Mos Def is quick to break into reggae or song, to dub himself "the original b-boy apostle/ standing on the rooftop with the Zulu Gestapo." And Kweli, while occasionally a little stiff and preachy, proves that he's "like shot clocks/interstate cops/ and blood clots/ my point is that your flow gets stopped."

However, a good hip-hop album isn't just a Joe Satriani-esque display of technique without substance. And Black Star's collective vision easily transcends either MC. The name Black Star itself is a reference to Marcus Garvey, and to his emphasis on self-determination and empowerment. Whatever one thinks of Garvey, his message is a powerful one, and Black Star does it justice.

They claim that they're "dark like the side of the moon you don't see." Black Star tells it like they see it and like they want to see it. They go after "hater players," shout out the five boroughs and African nations, break out an old-skool alternating rhyme style over a killer b-boy breakbeat, celebrate "brown skin ladies," and even title a song "K[nowledge] O[f] S[elf] (Determination)."

Rather than stealing hooks from old pop songs, Black Star pay tribute to their influences through samples. They cover songs by Boogie Down Productions ("Stop the Violence" and "The P is Still Free") and Slick Rick ("Children's Story"), updating them not only to mourn the passing of the rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, but also to criticize the hip-hop culture which leads young rappers to say "Me and you we gonna make some cash/ jacking old beats and making the dash."

The best thing about this album is that it isn't a bitter pill to swallow. Mos Def isn't lying when he says "My style'll make you jump around like calypso/ and mumble to yourself like a schizo." The production, by Shawn J Period and Hi-Tek, uses jazz, crowd noise, old synthesizers, guitars, and lots of bass and kick drums to nod heads.

Black Star are ready for acclaim and sales, and they deserve it. As Kweli says, "You stopping us/ is preposterous/ like an androgenous/ misogynist." (Rawkus)

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