Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Blackstar Album Appreciation Thread

[mrjoncampbell]

I'll get this up once I get home tonight

 

[DaveyDave]

found this cool cover if anyone wants to use it for that Bootlegs & B-Sides album.

i don't think it's an official cover for anything

 

[JoeBuddenNumber1Fan]

who the fukk listens to this backpack cac sh1t

 

[malbaker86]

I miss music like this

Somehow I got around to listening to this album for the first time in 2002, and was BLOWN away. I still am blown away by it. Flawless

 

[DaveyDave]

I miss music like this

Somehow I got around to listening to this album for the first time in 2002, and was BLOWN away. I still am blown away by it. Flawless

i slept for a long time too because i just wasn't on my east coast shyt around that time

 

[malbaker86]

i slept for a long time too because i just wasn't on my east coast shyt around that time

Same here bruh.

Being from the South, 10th grade HS sports head, wasn't into downloading east coast stuff TOO much besides the heavyweights was my reasoning. Once I downloaded this off KaZaA though bruh.....

 

[BigF]

Common's last 2 lines on Respiration damn near choke me up every time. Reminiscing on his fallen homie.

'It's deep I heard the city breathe in it's sleep - on reality I touch but for me it's hard to keep'

 

[MrHipHop]

One of the best albums of '98!

 

[Umi]

It is a perfect album.

I said it before: http://www.the-coli.com/booth/59922-when-we-drop-bullshyt.html#.UXVK8cqxmbU

You think you the ****
Somebody in the wings'll force you to quit
It could be your crew or click
Or some random kid you smoked buddha with
Consider me the entity within the industry without a history
Of spitting the epitome of stupidity
Living my life, expressing my liberty, it gotta be done properly
My name is in the middle of equality
People follow me, and other cats they hear 'em flow
And assume I'm the real one with lyrics like I'm Cyrano




More than usually, speakin loudly
Saying nothing, you confusing me, you losing me
Your game is twisted, want me enlisted in your usury
Foolishly, most men join the ranks cluelessly
Buffoonishly accept the deception, believe the perception
Reflection rarely seen across the surface of the lookin glass
Walking the street, wonderin who they be looking past
Looking gassed with them imported designer shades on
Stars shine bright, but the light, rarely stays on
Same song, just remixed, different arrangement
Put you on a yacht but they won't call it a slaveship
Strangeness, you don't control this, you barely hold this
Screaming "brand new!", when they just sanitized the old ****






Blacker than the nighttime sky of Bed-Stuy in July
Blacker than the seed in the blackberry pie
Blacker than the middle of my eye
Black like Fela man cry
Some man wan ask "Who am I?"
I simply reply, "The U.N.I., V.E.R.S.A.L. Magnetic"
Work to respect the angelic
Climb the mountain top and tell it 'til the valley's enveloped
You're full of big chat but you nah know me
I'm dark like the side of the moon you don't see
When the moon shine newly





So keepin it real will make you casualty of abnormal normality
Killers Born Naturally like, Mickey and Mallory
Not knowing the ways'll get you capped like an NBA salary
Some cats be emceeing to illustrate what we be seeing
Hard to be a spiritual being when **** is shakin what you believe in
For trees to grow in Brooklyn, seeds need to be planted
I'm asking if y'all feel me and the crowd left me stranded
My blood pressure boiled and rose, cause New York ******
Actin spoiled at shows, to the winners the spoils go
I take the L, transfer to the 2, head to the gates
New York life type trife the Roman Empire state



They jacked the beats, money came wit' ease
But son, he couldn't stop, it's like he had a disease
He jacked another and another, Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder
Set some R & B over the track for 'Deep Cover' (187!)
The kid got wild startin' actin' erratic
He said "Yo, that presidential I got ta have it..."
With liquor in his belly son, he made up the track
But little did he know that his joints was wack
The shiny A & R said "Great new hit G!"
"Whenever you need a loop, yo come get me..."
The kid got amped and he starts to figure
"I'm-a get dough like all-a these otha ******!"
So, he's in the studio workin' 'round the clock
For pop radio, jacked the beat to 'Planet Rock'
Was out in the street when he met this sister
Who couldn't sing for shhhh but the mix would assist her
Hooked up the track and in excitation
He decided he'd head for the radio station
But (But!) he was runnin' and he made a left
Was skeezin' at top speed and ran into Mos Def
I slowed the young man down and I started: "Yo money
Yo, why you sellin' lies to our wives and children?"
He ran upstairs up to the top floor
Opened up the door then guess what he saw? (Who?)
JANE the chickenhead radio host
Who be yappin' 'bout beef between east and west coast
He said "This one's a bullet, you got ta give it run!"
The chicken said "Thanks." and spanked it #1




Sat by the window with a clutched dome listenin to shorties cuss long
Young girls with weak minds, but they butt strong

Some of the stories behind it are pretty amazing.

“We ended up doing that entire album for like $70,000. We kept going back and asking for more money to mix, travel, and fly and everything. Once that offer was on the table, Yasiin came up with the idea.

"A lot of people think the Black Star thing was because of Marcus Garvey, but Yasiin was on some cosmic shyt. He was talking about binaries and black stars in the cosmos and that’s where he was at. That’s why the first song is ‘Astronomy.’

“So we flipped ‘The P Is Still Free,’ but then Hi-Tek doesn’t like to copy. He was like, ‘This is just me flipping BDP, I need to flip it again.’ That’s where we get ‘REdefinition’ from. Hi-Tek flipped it again, and he used the same drums and same pattern, but he did a Hi-Tek version of it.

“Common was my favorite MC though. If Yasiin was becoming my favorite MC at the time, Common had been my favorite. You couldn’t tell me nothing wrong about Common. I thought Common was the greatest thing since sliced bread. When we talked about who we want on the album, I was the one who was like, ‘We need Common.’

“He’s still that fukking guy. It’s funny, I watched 88 Keys go from being cool with me and Yasiin to being cool with Q-Tip to being cool with Kanye to being cool with Dilla. Whoever’s making the hottest beats, 88 Keys is next to them. That’s his shyt.

 

[TheJet]

Respiration is

It's the perfect hip hop song

 

[Buckeye Fever]

The guy that produced brown skin lady, j rawls, where is he from????

 

[King P]

Still love this album

WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER BLACKSTAR ALBUM?

As much as I would love it, not sure it would be the same.

Especially with the way Mos been rapping lately.

 

[manyfaces]

It is a perfect album.

I said it before: http://www.the-coli.com/booth/59922-when-we-drop-bullshyt.html#.UXVK8cqxmbU



Some of the stories behind it are pretty amazing.

Where are those quotes from about making the album? Would love to read more.

Love Thieves in the Night. Mos as a verse closer was the equivalent of Deck as a verse opener: "I give a damn if any fam recall my legacy, I'm trying to live my life in the sight of Gods memory."

When his verse was done you would straight be on some shyt.

 

[the cac mamba]

the way Mos been rapping lately.

 

[Majestyx]

The guy that produced brown skin lady, j rawls, where is he from????

at u asking this question. he stay down the street from u in columbus. when i lived in ohio, I did a few shows wit him, he's one of the coolest nikkas i've ever met.