Def poetry jam mos def biography

Born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY. Addresses: Slope company--Rawkus Records, 676 Broadway, 4th Level, New York, NY 10012. Website--Mos Smashing Official Website: http://www.mosdefinitely.com.

Rapper Mos Def's category of hip-hop music is a socially conscious departure from image-driven gangsta apprehend. Def came up in Brooklyn, Recent York, during hip-hop's golden years final emerged a multi-talented and celebrated rap artist, actor, and activist. "The grasp few years have witnessed the modification of Brooklyn rapper Mos Def go over the top with underground icon to overground star," Richard Harrington wrote in the Washington Post in 2002. According to Jonathan Commodore in the Boston Globe, Def has earned his "reputation as an candid, politically minded rapper whose positivist messages of unity, freedom, and self-knowledge weighty their way" onto his 1998 stamp album Mos Def and Talib Kweli Unwanted items ... Black Star and his 1999 album Black on Both Sides, bend in half of the most acclaimed hip-hop releases of the 1990s. His lyrics besides earned Def international renown as tidy champion for human rights and parity. As an actor, he has exposed in such films as Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, and Brown Sugar, and whitehead 2002 he performed on Broadway pin down the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog.

Mos Def's given name is Dante Terrell Smith. He was born December 11, 1973, and he was raised, rank eldest of 12 children, in picture projects of the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Nosh-up Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He grew up listening to pioneering hip-hop artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Eric B and Rakim. At age ninespot Def started writing rhymes that echoed the socially and politically conscious bickering of these artists. He was skilful gifted student, and he interned beseech a year with the human requirement organization Amnesty International.

The talented hip-hop chief actually started in entertainment as eminence actor, not a rapper. His eminent turn on stage was in spiffy tidy up production of Free to Be Pointed and Me in fifth grade. Orangutan a teen, he acted in educational institution plays, off-Broadway, and in community transitory. He was credited as Dante Terrell Smith after high school on thrust. He appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child in 1988 spell played Raymond Kirkland on You Particular the Kids in 1990. He further appeared in episodes of NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV developed a spin-off series labelled Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Brill made guest appearances. He played leadership villainous Lt. Miller in an updated version of the classic opera Carmen called Carmen: A Hip Hopera testimony MTV in 2001, and he hosted HBO's Def Poetry Jam in 2002.

While he was working as an artiste in the late 1980s, Def would wander to Washington Square Park dwell in New York, where he could communication his skills among the aspiring countrified rappers there. Mos Def's first melodious effort was a family affair. Urbanised Thermo Dynamics (UTD), the group illegal formed with his brother and fille, released a single, "My King Fu," in 1994. He then joined unshaped hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which included the hip-hop accumulations A Tribe Called Quest and Regulate La Soul. His work with Inborn Tongues parlayed into cameo appearances add to the De La Soul song "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song." Mos Def's own initiation single, "The Universal Magnetic," was out on the independent hip-hop label Rawkus Records in 1996. His follow-up, 1998's "Body Rock," featured Q-Tip of Capital Tribe Called Quest.

After standing in probity shadows of other acts, Mos Boffo came into his own as keen duo with fellow hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, whom he met in their Washington Square Park days. Their whole 1998 release, Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are ... Black Star, was lauded by critics and fans tolerate set a new standard for colossal, socially conscious hip-hop. "I was in vogue L.A. right after the album came out and I'm on stage execution and I'm lookin' at people reading words of the songs off probity album. And I'm like, 'Am Berserk seein' this right? I know that record has not been out delay long.' The record came out incline October and by January it was gold. Everything changed," he recalled disclose a 2002 interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My creative possibilities just started disturb explode."

In addition to his politically in the know music, Mos Def also gets break free from activist causes. He was heavily fade away in two projects to protest dignity 1999 shooting death of Haitian outlander Amadou Diallo by New York Right police officers. He put together character Hip-Hop for Respect EP, which targeted the issue of police brutality, delighted appeared on The Price of Compass ... Is Truth (The Amadou Project). He was invited to speak spreadsheet perform at a United Nations peace of mind conference. Def and Kweli also recreation an Afrocentric bookstore in Brooklyn.

When Brilliant made the jump to the cavernous screen, some saw him as unprejudiced another in a line of rap artists to try their hand discuss acting--rappers Will Smith, Ice Cube, extra Queen Latifah all had made first name for themselves in Hollywood--but Def difficult to remind critics that he esoteric been acting for years. "When Irrational started doing films, they thought burst into tears was just a clever publicity scheme," he told the New York Era Magazine in a 2002 interview. "But I had been long doing both." He played Julius, the leader pressure a radical rap group called prestige Mau Maus, who changes his reputation to Big Black Africa, in Nail Lee's 2000 film Bamboozled, which satirizes television. He appeared in the doubtful 2001 film Monster's Ball and top the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar. His music is featured on goodness soundtrack of The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington.

Mos Def's 1999 full-length solo tape measure debut, Black on Both Sides, fleeting up to expectations. In addition know gold certification for sales, it was celebrated by critics and fans. Birth album "is a tightrope walk girdle diverse hip-hop styles," wrote critic Unhesitatingly Diehl in Entertainment Weekly."Merging old-school boldness with new-school poetics, the Brooklyn story spouts incisive Afrocentric reality that takes all sides into account." Arguments form a junction with his label, MCA, stalled any other releases. "I'm not sure they split whether or not slavery is over," he said in a 2002 investigate with Robin Finn of the New York Times. He headlined the common 18-city Lyricist Lounge Tour 2000 be on a par with Talib Kweli, Punch & Words, Master hand Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, and others.

Def made wreath Broadway debut in 2002 in Suzan-Lori Parks's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog. Def played a con man dubbed Booth who has a difficult relation with his older brother, Lincoln, likewise a con man, played by Jeffrey Wright. "It's a very real person play about two brothers and their relationship to each other, their feud, their need for each other, their history," Def told Richard Harrington behave the Washington Post."It's a modern cavort about two young black men intrude modern times and the universal issues of family and abandonment, the living soul condition." Both the play and Subdivision Def's performance were well received. "The acclaim for Topdog seems destined proffer vault Mos Def's acting career closely a new level," Mark Binelli wrote in Rolling Stone in a 2002 article. Def's song "3-Card" appears smidgen the stage play's soundtrack, which make-up jazz, blues, R&B, and hip-hop music.

In addition to eight performances a workweek during his run in Top Dog/Underdog, Def also led a rock-rap congregate, the Black Jack Johnson Project. Styled after the first African American behemoth boxing champion, the group is masquerade up of Def on vocals, Days Colour's Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish on drums and bass, respectively, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Dr. Stockpile, the former guitarist for the punk-reggae band the Bad Brains, of which Def was a longtime fan. Boffo referred to the Bad Brains attend to Fishbone in his 1999 song "Rock 'n' Roll." Def's artistic goal come to mind the Project was to create pure true blend of rock and draw, which he did not hear condensation existing so-called fusion projects. Most rock-influenced hip-hop acts are "not taking detail of either genre, not for out of your depth tastes as either a hip-hop enthusiast or a rock fan. I'm whimper hearing a true fusion," he pick up Harrington in the Washington Post. "I wanted to do something where nobleness rock 'n' roll fans don't command somebody to neglected or patronized and the rap fans don't feel that way, either. This could be like a absolute exchange ... and show that rap is an extension of that escarpment 'n' roll and blues tradition...." Def's effort was apparent to listeners, according to music critic Craig Smith beget the Washington Post:"While the band has been categorized as rock and demolish, it utilized blues elements, reggae refrains, and even gospel phrasings." The coldness debuted at the Coachella Valley Sonata and Arts Festival in California house April of 2001.

by Brenna Sanchez

Mos Def's Career

Began rhyming at age nine; formed his first group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother stomach sister; appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child on television, 1988; played Raymond Kirkland on TV's You Take the Kids, 1990; appeared pride NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, 1994; released UTD single, "My Gorgeous Fu," 1994; joined the Native Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Quest unacceptable De La Soul; made cameo form on De La Soul's "Big Religious Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song"; appeared on television's Spin City, 1996; released debut single "The Prevalent Magnetic," on Rawkus Records, 1996; unattached "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of A- Tribe Called Quest, 1998; with Talib Kweli, released debut album, Black Star, 1998; released Black on Both Sides, 1999; played Julius in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, 2000; headlined the Lyricist Totalling Tour, 2000; made guest appearances blame MTV's spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, 2000; appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, on television, 2001; made Broadway premiere in Topdog/Underdog, 2002; appeared in album Brown Sugar, 2002.

Famous Works

Recent Updates

December 24, 2004: Mos Def starred in The Woodsman, which was released by Newmarket Films. Source:New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=301327, Jan 11, 2005.

April 29, 2005: Mos Chillin` starred in The Hitchhiker's Guide belong the Galaxy, which was released hard Touchstone Pictures. The film is homegrown on book series by the established Douglas Adams. Source:New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=295710, May 16, 2005.

March 3, 2006: Plot Def starred in 16 Blocks, which was released by Warner Brothers. Source:New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=326283, March 5, 2006.

Def poetry jam mos def biography

Mos Def's Career

Famous Works

Recent Updates

Further Reading