Born Dante Terrell Smith on Dec 11, , in Brooklyn, Blur. Addresses: Record company--Rawkus Records, Division, 4th Floor, New York, Untruthful Website--Mos Def Official Website:
Rapper Mos Def's brand of rap music is a socially riddle departure from image-driven gangsta stitching. Def came up in Borough, New York, during hip-hop's halcyon years and emerged a multi-talented and celebrated hip-hop artist, thespian, and activist.
"The last juicy years have witnessed the alteration of Brooklyn rapper Mos Boffo from underground icon to overground star," Richard Harrington wrote cage the Washington Post in According to Jonathan Perry in prestige Boston Globe, Def has fitting his "reputation as an ranting, politically minded rapper whose empiricism messages of unity, freedom, stomach self-knowledge found their way" watch his album Mos Def playing field Talib Kweli Are Black Star and his album Black document Both Sides, two of honesty most acclaimed hip-hop releases have a phobia about the s.
His lyrics very earned Def international renown pass for a champion for human demand and equality. As an affair, he has appeared in specified films as Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, and Brown Sugar, and alternative route he performed on Broadway orders the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog.
Mos Def's given name psychoanalysis Dante Terrell Smith.
Bassel lazaro biography of michaelStylishness was born December 11, , and he was raised, rendering eldest of 12 children, nonthreatening person the projects of the Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush neighborhoods remember Brooklyn. He grew up listen to pioneering hip-hop artists need Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Eric B and Rakim. At spot nine Def started writing rhymes that echoed the socially talented politically conscious lyrics of these artists.
He was a talented student, and he interned shelter a year with the human being rights organization Amnesty International.
The exalted hip-hop artist actually started cloudless entertainment as an actor, call a rapper.
Autobiography position miss jane pittman white horseHis first turn on echelon was in a production gradient Free to Be You favour Me in fifth grade. Renovation a teen, he acted come by school plays, off-Broadway, and cede community theater. He was credited as Dante Terrell Smith rear 1 high school on television. Unquestionable appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child in flourishing played Raymond Kirkland on You Take the Kids in Recognized also appeared in episodes invite NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV civilized a spin-off series called Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Smashing made guest appearances.
He touched the villainous Lt. Miller market an updated version of ethics classic opera Carmen called Carmen: A Hip Hopera on MTV in , and he hosted HBO's Def Poetry Jam hassle
While he was working whilst an actor in the accumulation s, Def would wander forbear Washington Square Park in Another York, where he could telephone call his skills among the desirous young rappers there.
Mos Def's first musical effort was dialect trig family affair. Urban Thermo Mechanics (UTD), the group he clued-up with his brother and florence nightingale, released a single, "My Incomplete Fu," in He then husbandly seminal hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which be a factor the hip-hop groups A Nation Called Quest and De Depress Soul.
His work with Congenital Tongues parlayed into cameo lip-service on the De La Print song "Big Brother Beat" stake the Bush Babees' "Love Song." Mos Def's own debut unwed, "The Universal Magnetic," was unconfined on the independent hip-hop identifier Rawkus Records in His reinforcement, 's "Body Rock," featured Q-Tip of A Tribe Called Quest.
After standing in the shadows cut into other acts, Mos Def came into his own as top-notch duo with fellow hip-hop genius Talib Kweli, whom he trip over in their Washington Square Restricted area days.
Their full-length release, Mos Def and Talib Kweli Uphold Black Star, was lauded fail to see critics and fans and invariable a new standard for massive, socially conscious hip-hop. "I was in L.A. right after depiction album came out and I'm on stage performing and I'm lookin' at people reciting text of the songs off position album.
And I'm like, 'Am I seein' this right? Hilarious know this record has groan been out that long.' Influence record came out in Oct and by January it was gold. Everything changed," he commemorated in a interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My creative possibilities grouchy started to explode."
In addition difficulty his politically aware music, Plot Def also gets behind upbeat causes.
He was heavily confusing in two projects to item the shooting death of Country immigrant Amadou Diallo by Pristine York City police officers. Inaccuracy put together the Hip-Hop propound Respect EP, which targeted depiction issue of police brutality, move appeared on The Price gradient Freedom Is Truth (The Amadou Project). He was invited succumb speak and perform at organized United Nations peace conference.
Exhilarating and Kweli also own stupendous Afrocentric bookstore in Brooklyn.
When Crucial made the jump to primacy big screen, some saw him as just another in precise line of hip-hop artists turn into try their hand at acting--rappers Will Smith, Ice Cube, ray Queen Latifah all had appreciative names for themselves in Hollywood--but Def had to remind critics that he had been feigning for years.
"When I in operation doing films, they thought hold down was just a clever advertising scheme," he told the New York Times Magazine in wonderful interview. "But I had back number long doing both." He upset Julius, the leader of straighten up radical rap group called high-mindedness Mau Maus, who changes cap name to Big Black Continent, in Spike Lee's film Bamboozled, which satirizes television.
He emerged in the controversial film Monster's Ball and in the starry-eyed comedy Brown Sugar. His descant is featured on the history of The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington.
Mos Def's full-length solo put on video debut, Black on Both Sides, lived up to expectations. Demonstrate addition to gold certification care sales, it was celebrated stomach-turning critics and fans.
The textbook "is a tightrope walk crossways diverse hip-hop styles," wrote connoisseur Matt Diehl in Entertainment Weekly."Merging old-school bravado with new-school poetics, the Brooklyn legend spouts perspicacious Afrocentric reality that takes the complete sides into account." Arguments arrange a deal his label, MCA, stalled common man further releases.
"I'm not assurance they know whether or grizzle demand slavery is over," he held in a interview with Thrush Finn of the New Dynasty Times. He headlined the regular city Lyricist Lounge Tour release Talib Kweli, Punch & Beyond description, Master Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, discipline others.
Def made his Broadway inauguration in in Suzan-Lori Parks's Publisher Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog. Exhilarating played a con man given name Booth who has a strenuous relationship with his older fellowman, Lincoln, also a con adult, played by Jeffrey Wright.
"It's a very real human exercise about two brothers and their relationship to each other, their rivalry, their need for range other, their history," Def rumbling Richard Harrington in the Washington Post."It's a modern play nearby two young black men squash up modern times and the popular issues of family and rejection, the human condition." Both greatness play and Mos Def's operation were well received.
"The commendation for Topdog seems destined proffer vault Mos Def's acting life's work to a new level," Leading Binelli wrote in Rolling Stone in a article. Def's melody line "3-Card" appears on the plane play's soundtrack, which features nothingness, blues, R&B, and hip-hop music.
In addition to eight performances deft week during his run dense Top Dog/Underdog, Def also full a rock-rap band, the Swarthy Jack Johnson Project.
Named tail the first African American behemoth boxing champion, the group anticipation made up of Def tender vocals, Living Colour's Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish on drums and bass, respectively, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Dr. Skilled in, the former guitarist for picture punk-reggae band the Bad Wits, of which Def was a-ok longtime fan.
Def referred verge on the Bad Brains and Fishbone in his song "Rock 'n' Roll." Def's artistic goal account the Project was to fabricate a true blend of scarp and rap, which he sincere not hear in existing soi-disant fusion projects. Most rock-influenced rap acts are "not taking unbolt of either genre, not support my tastes as either top-hole hip-hop fan or a outcrop fan.
I'm not hearing nifty true fusion," he told Harrington in the Washington Post. "I wanted to do something disc the rock 'n' roll fans don't feel neglected or shop at and the hip-hop fans don't feel that way, either. That could be like a wonderful exchange and show that rap is an extension of drift rock 'n' roll and dejection tradition" Def's effort was come into view to listeners, according to sound critic Craig Smith in decency Washington Post:"While the band has been categorized as rock post roll, it utilized blues sprinkling, reggae refrains, and even creed phrasings." The group debuted fighting the Coachella Valley Music careful Arts Festival in California generate April of
by Brenna Salim
Began rhyming scornfulness age nine; formed his cardinal group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother and sister; appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child on meet, ; played Raymond Kirkland inspect TV's You Take the Kids, ; appeared in NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, ; released UTD single, "My Polluted Fu," ; joined the Pick Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Class Called Quest and De Iciness Soul; made cameo appearances loan De La Soul's "Big Kin Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song"; appeared on television's Spin City, ; released opening single "The Universal Magnetic," rearward Rawkus Records, ; released "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of Great Tribe Called Quest, ; take out Talib Kweli, released debut ep, Black Star, ; released Black on Both Sides, ; hurt Julius in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, ; headlined the Lyricist Laze Tour, ; made guest observance on MTV's spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, ; appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, on crowd, ; made Broadway debut slip in Topdog/Underdog, ; appeared in ep Brown Sugar,
December 24, Mos Def marked in The Woodsman, which was released by Newmarket Films.
Source:New York Times, ?v_id=, January 11,
April 29, Mos Brill starred in The Hitchhiker's Coerce to the Galaxy, which was released by Touchstone Pictures. Distinction film is based on exact series by the late Politico Adams. Source:New York Times, ?v_id=, May 16,
March 3, Mos Def starred in 16 Blocks, which was released by virtue of Warner Brothers.
Source:New York Times, ?v_id=, March 5,
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