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Welcome to the Essential Album of the Week discussion thread!
Starting on every Wednesday we will discuss an album from our Essential Albums list. Beginning with our [classic] (http://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/1irgch/the_second_round_of_essentials_voting_is_now/) list, we'll be moving chronologically to [modern] (http://www.reddit.com/r/hiphopheads/comments/1imyre/the_first_round_of_essentials_voting_is_now/) times.
Last week's EAotW: [DMX - It's Dark and Hell Is Hot] (http://redd.it/2kp5ft)
Album: [Black Star] (https://i.imgur.com/u9DADUK.jpg) - [Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star] (https://i.imgur.com/v7BMJ22.png) (Rawkus, 1998)
Stream
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[YouTube] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tb2N-Pr6pRo)
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[Spotify] (https://play.spotify.com/album/6GRzmk9UGL7odxprOPop1Q)
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[Grooveshark] (http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Mos+Def+and+Talib+Kweli+Are+Black+Star/176349)
Videos
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[Definition] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuJaStSL0xM)
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[Respiration (ft. Common)] (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeTnog5RRQo)
Background/Description: Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star is the debut album by Brooklyn, New York rap duo Black Star, released August 18, 1998 on Rawkus Records. First meeting through their children, the two emcees had a natural chemistry and soon became like brothers. The duo first made an appearance together on the Rawkus Records “Soundbombing” album on the songs “Fortified Live” and “Freestyle”. They worked so well together that they both postponed their individual projects and decided instead to collaborate on a full-length LP.
Drawing their name from the Black Star Line, a shipping line founded by Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey, Mos and Talib speak on modern-day issues, philosophical ideas and life in Brooklyn as they know it. Throughout the album, they speak out against the racism, violence, materialism and other struggles they face in everyday life. Mos and Talib aim to empower black people with songs like “Astronomy” which interprets the word “black” in a positive way and “Brown Skin Lady” which encourages black women to be proud of how they look and to not be influenced by Western beauty standards. In the wake of the deaths of legendary Arappers 2Pac and Biggie Smalls, they claim hip hop has become too violent and that “the length of black life is treated with short wort
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Listen
Learn:
Info about Black Star:
Black Star arose from the underground movement of the late 1990s, which was in large part due to Rawkus Records, an independent record label stationed in New York City. They released one album, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star on August 26, 1998. The record received critical acclaim, but only moderate commercial success. Black Star (and other members of the Native Tongues Posse) helped shape underground alternative rap, bringing it into the mainstream. Both Mos Def and Talib Kweli have gone on to greater commercial and critical success in their solo careers.
Black Star's message on their original album carried a lot of weight, from both their lyrics about social consciousness and political issues as well the strong statement in the wake of the deaths of both Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur in the late 1990s, during which an adolescent hip-hop culture suffered in the vacuum of iconic leadership provided by Smalls and Shakur. Black Star attempted to reconcile these tensions in their songs "Definition" and "Re:Definition" which share the same lyrics on their self titled album: “I said one, two, three / It’s kinda dangerous to be an emcee / They shot Tupac and Biggie / Too much violence in hip-hop, waii-ooo”
In 2001, Black Star performed "Money Jungle" with Ron Carter and John Patton for the Red Hot Organization's compilation album Red Hot + Indigo, a tribute to Duke Ellington, which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease. In 2002, the song "Hater Players" was used in an episode of The Wire, season one episode 10, The Cost. In 2005, hip hop website TheSituation.co.uk reported Kweli said that a new Black Star album was "in the pipeline". On Talib Kweli's Myspace he posted up a video saying that "We're going to find Mos Def and put it on camera that there will be a second Black Star album." In 2006, Mos and Kweli appeared together in the movie Dave Chappelle's Block Party, alongside Erykah Badu, Common, Jill Scott, Dead Prez and The Fugees, among others. They contributed a new song, "Born & Rai
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What do you think of this classic album 20 years since its release?
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What are your favorite tracks?
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What is the best verse?
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How does this album compare to the two artist’s other work?
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How influential was this album? Is its impact still felt today?
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Does it deserve to be called a classic?
