Black Star is superb from start to finish, but "Respiration" which features Mos Def, Talib Kweli and guest emcee Common has been a kind of personal anthem for me for a long time now. It is the song that best encapsulates my experience of America: that of being young, black and sensitive to New York City's stories, visible and otherwise.
The voices on "Respiration" have become part of my mental weather. They have been as steady to me as the night and the air; we know a song has hit a special mark when it can bear such incessant repetition. "Respiration" is a song about New York, where I live: love for the city, wisdom about the city, an inventory of the city, a celebration of nighttime in the city. It is poetic in the best possible sense: it gives exact language to intuition.
