Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star

The album came to fruition from the chemistry between the two emcees. Both planned to release their solo albums around the same time, but they postponed their individual projects and decided instead to collaborate on a full-length LP. The album's cover was designed by artist Brent Rollins.{{cite web |title=Inside The Album Art: Designer Brent Rollins Talks Freeway, Black Star, Spank Rock & More |url=https://www.complex.com/music/2010/02/inside-the-album-art-designer-brent-rollins-talks-freeway-black-star-spank-rock-more |website=complex.com |accessdate=7 March 2020 |date=19 Feb 2010}}

{{multiple image

| width = 150

| align = left

| image1 = Mos def-11-mika.jpg

| alt1 = Mos Def in 1999

| image2 = Talib kweli-01-mika.jpg

| alt2 = Talib Kweli in 1999

| footer = Mos Def (left) and Talib Kweli (right) in 1999

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The late jazz musician Weldon Irvine played the keys on the album's opening song, "Astronomy," which interprets the word "black" in a positive way, and contains similes such as "Black, like my baby girl's hair". The next song, and first single, "Definition", is a stern response to hip hop's fascination with death, and a dedication to slain emcees Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. As the chorus goes, "One two three/Mos Def and Talib Kweli/We came to rock it on to the tip top/Best alliance in hip hop, Y-O/I said, one two three/It's kinda dangerous to be a MC/They shot 2Pac and Biggie/Too much violence in hip hop, Y-O". The chorus is also a play on Boogie Down Productions' anti-gun song "Stop the Violence", as well as "Remix For P Is Free" from their album Criminal Minded. "Children's Story" is a re-imagined version of Slick Rick's original, which features Mos Def cautioning overly materialistic pursuits.{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

"Brown-Skin Lady" is an affectionate tribute to brown-skinned women. The song encourages black and brown women to be proud of their hair and complexion, and to not be influenced by Western beauty standards. Kweli rhymes, "We're not dealin' with the European standard of beauty tonight/Turn off the TV and put the magazine away/Look in the mirror tell me what you see/I see the evidence of divine presence."{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

"Thieves in the Night" was inspired by author Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye.{{cite web |last1=Shields |first1=Michael |title=Twenty Years Later — Black Star's Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star |url=https://acrossthemargin.com/twenty-years-later-black-star/ |website=acrossthemargin.com |accessdate=7 March 2020 |date=27 September 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Temple |first1=Emily |title=11 Pop Songs for Literary People |url=https://lithub.com/11-pop-songs-for-literary-people/ |website=Literary Hub |accessdate=7 March 2020 |date=26 January 2018}} In the album's liner notes, Kweli explains that the paragraph "struck me as one of the truest critiques of our society, and I read that in high school when I was 15 years old. I think it is especially true in the world of hip hop, because we get blinded by these illusions." The excerpt interpolated in the song is as follows: "And fantasy it was, for we were not strong, only aggressive; we were not free, merely licensed; we were not compassionate, we were polite; not good but well-behaved. We courted death in order to call ourselves brave, and hid like thieves from life." And the version on the track: "Not strong, only aggressive/Not free, we only licensed/Not compassionate, only polite (now who the nicest?)/Not good but well-behaved/Chasin' after death so we could call ourselves brave, still livin' like mental slaves/Hiding like thieves in the night from life/Illusions of oasis making you look twice."{{citation needed|date=April 2016}}

{{Music ratings

| rev1 = AllMusic

| rev1Score = {{Rating|5|5}}{{cite web |last=Kaufman |first=Jason |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/black-star-mw0000043603 |title=Black Star – Black Star / Mos Def / Talib Kweli |publisher=AllMusic |accessdate=September 27, 2011}}

| rev2 = Encyclopedia of Popular Music

| rev2Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |chapter=Black Star |title=The Encyclopedia of Popular Music |title-link=Encyclopedia of Popular Music |last=Larkin |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Larkin |publisher=Omnibus Press |edition=5th concise |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-85712-595-8}}

| rev3 = Entertainment Weekly

| rev3Score = A−{{cite magazine |last=Diehl |first=Matt |url=https://ew.com/article/1998/10/23/mos-def-and-talib-kweli-are-black-star/ |title=Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star |magazine=Entertainment Weekly |location=New York |date=October 23, 1998 |accessdate=May 7, 2020}}

| rev4 = Muzik

| rev4Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite magazine |last=McPhail |first=Pete |title=Blackstar: Blackstar (Rawkus) |magazine=Muzik |issue=42 |location=London |date=November 1998 |page=83}}

| rev5 = NME

| rev5Score = 8/10{{cite magazine |last=Crysell |first=Andy |url=https://www.nme.com:80/reviews/reviews/19980919115701reviews.html |title=Blackstar – Blackstar |magazine=NME |location=London |date=October 19, 1998 |accessdate=January 17, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817222724/http://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews/19980919115701reviews.html |archive-date=August 17, 2000 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}

| rev6 = Rolling Stone

| rev6Score = {{Rating|3|5}}{{cite magazine |last=Powell |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Powell |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/artists/blackstar/albums/album/162843/review/5943898/black_star |title=Black Star: Black Star |magazine=Rolling Stone |location=New York |date=October 7, 1998 |accessdate=April 9, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080401202339/http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/blackstar/albums/album/162843/review/5943898/black_star |archive-date=April 1, 2008}}

| rev7 = The Rolling Stone Album Guide

| rev7Score = {{Rating|4|5}}{{cite book |chapter=Mos Def |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRgtYCC6OUwC&pg=PA562 |accessdate=September 27, 2011 |last=Relic |first=Peter |title=The New Rolling Stone Album Guide |title-link=The Rolling Stone Album Guide |year=2004 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |edition=4th |editor1-last=Brackett |editor1-first=Nathan |editor2-last=Hoard |editor2-first=Christian |isbn=0-7432-0169-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/newrollingstonea00brac/page/562 562]}}

| rev8 = The Source

| rev8Score = {{Rating|3.5|5}}{{cite magazine |last=Solomon|first=Akiba|title=Black Star: Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star |magazine=The Source |issue=110 |location=New York |date=November 1998 |pages=198, 200}}

| rev9 = Spin

| rev9Score = 10/10{{cite magazine |last=Aaron |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Aaron |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xGaz0_gZPzIC&pg=PA80 |title=Mos Def |magazine=Spin |volume=25 |issue=8 |location=New York |date=August 2009 |accessdate=April 9, 2016 |page=80}}

| rev10 = The Village Voice

| rev10Score = A−{{cite news |last=Christgau |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Christgau |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/cg/cgv1098-98.php |title=Consumer Guide |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |date=November 3, 1998 |accessdate=September 27, 2011}}

}}

Black Star was voted the 24th best album of 1998 in the Pazz & Jop, a poll of American critics nationwide published annually by The Village Voice.{{cite news |url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pjres98.php |title=The 1998 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll |newspaper=The Village Voice |location=New York |date=March 2, 1999 |accessdate=September 27, 2011}} Robert Christgau, the poll's creator, wrote in a contemporary review that Mos Def and Talib Kweli "devise a hip hop imaginary where hater players lose their girls-not-bitches to MCs so disinterested they give 'em right back. The rhymes are the selling point. But the subculture that cares most about these words is what you'll come back to." According to Encyclopedia of Popular Music writer Colin Larkin, the album abandoned "the negativity of gangsta rap" in favor of "a highly intelligent and searching examination of black culture, harking back to the classic era of rap epitomized by Public Enemy and KRS-One. The album's sparse, hard-hitting rhythms were also in marked comparison to the overblown productions of Puff Daddy, which dominated the rap mainstream."

{{Track listing

| extra_column = Producer(s)

| title1 = Intro

| writer1 =

| extra1 = Hi-Tek; co-produced by Talib Kweli

| length1 = 1:11

| title2 = Astronomy (8th Light)

| note2 = featuring Weldon Irvine

| writer2 =

| extra2 = Da Beatminerz

| length2 = 3:23

| title3 = Definition

| writer3 =

| extra3 = Hi-Tek

| length3 = 3:26

| title4 = Re: Definition

| writer4 =

| extra4 = Hi-Tek

| length4 = 3:02

| title5 = Children's Story

| writer5 =

| extra5 = Shawn J. Period

| length5 = 3:32

| title6 = Brown Skin Lady

| writer6 =

| extra6 = J. Rawls

| length6 = 5:46

| title7 = B Boys Will B Boys

| writer7 =

| extra7 = Ge-ology

| length7 = 2:36

| title8 = K.O.S. (Determination)

| note8 = featuring Vinia Mojica

| writer8 =

| extra8 = Hi-Tek

| length8 = 4:49

| title9 = Hater Players

| writer9 =

| extra9 = Shawn J. Period

| length9 = 4:08

| title10 = Yo Yeah

| writer10 =

| extra10 = J. Rawls; co-produced by Talib Kweli

| length10 = 1:10

| title11 = Respiration

| note11 = featuring Common

| writer11 =

| extra11 = Hi-Tek

| length11 = 6:05

| title12 = Thieves in the Night

| writer12 =

| extra12 = 88-Keys

| length12 = 5:16

| title13 = Twice Inna Lifetime

| note13 = featuring Jane Doe, Wordsworth, and Punchline

| writer13 =

| extra13 = Hi-Tek

| length13 = 5:38

}}

• Hi-Tek – Producer, Cut, Crowd Noise
• Weldon Irvine – Keyboards, performer
• Jim Godsey – Engineer
• Charlie Mack – Engineer
• Kieran Walsh – Engineer, Mixing
• Vinia Mojica – Performer
• DJ Evil Dee – Cut
• Jane Doe – Performer
• Rick St. Hillaire – Mixing
• Steve Souder – Mixing
• Chris Athens – Mastering
• Ken "Duro" Ifill – Mixing
• Eddie Otchere – Photography
• Vaughn Sessions – Engineer
• Mr. Walt – Producer, engineer, Mixing
• Success – Engineer
• Brent Rollins – Artwork, Cover art
• Mos Def – Fender Rhodes, performer
• Black Star – Artwork, Art Direction
• Talib Kweli – Producer, performer
• Marcus Garvey – Photography
• Ge-ology – Producer, Crowd Noise
• 88-Keys – Producer
• Pat Viola – Engineer
• Jake Septimus – Photography
• Tasleem – Photography
• Richard Mason – Crowd Noise
• J. Rawls – Producer
• Kieran Dee – Photography/Banter/Dietician

{{reflist|2}}

• {{Discogs master|type=album|66494}}

{{Talib Kweli}}

{{Mos Def}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star}}

Category:1998 debut albums

Category:Albums produced by Hi-Tek

Category:Albums produced by 88-Keys

Category:Albums produced by J. Rawls

Category:Albums recorded at Unique Recording Studios

Category:Black Star (group) albums

Category:Mos Def albums

Category:Progressive rap albums

Category:Rawkus Records albums

Category:Talib Kweli albums