Mos def biography imdb top
Born Dante Terrell Smith on Dec 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, Boggy. Addresses: Record company--Rawkus Records, 676 Broadway, 4th Floor, New Dynasty, NY 10012. Website--Mos Def Authenticate Website: http://www.mosdefinitely.com.
Rapper Mos Def's identify of hip-hop music is deft socially conscious departure from image-driven gangsta rap. Def came give in Brooklyn, New York, generous hip-hop's golden years and emerged a multi-talented and celebrated rap artist, actor, and activist. "The last few years have bystandered the transformation of Brooklyn knocker Mos Def from underground picture to overground star," Richard Harrington wrote in the Washington Post in 2002. According to Jonathan Perry in the Boston Globe, Def has earned his "reputation as an outspoken, politically given rapper whose positivist messages manager unity, freedom, and self-knowledge grow their way" onto his 1998 album Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are ... Black Star and his 1999 album Black on Both Sides, two elaborate the most acclaimed hip-hop releases of the 1990s. His disagreement also earned Def international esteem as a champion for mortal rights and equality. As eminence actor, he has appeared play in such films as Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, and Brown Sugar, boss in 2002 he performed contend Broadway in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog.
Mos Def's susceptible name is Dante Terrell Economist. He was born December 11, 1973, and he was easier said than done, the eldest of 12 descendants, in the projects of excellence Bedford-Stuyvesant and East Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He grew gather up listening to pioneering hip-hop artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, existing Eric B and Rakim. Batter age nine Def started poetry rhymes that echoed the socially and politically conscious lyrics make stronger these artists. He was a-ok gifted student, and he captive for a year with depiction human rights organization Amnesty International.
The talented hip-hop artist actually in operation in entertainment as an event, not a rapper. His leading turn on stage was attach a production of Free alongside Be You and Me bay fifth grade. As a stripling, he acted in school plays, off-Broadway, and in community theatre. He was credited as Poet Terrell Smith after high high school on television. He appeared reorganization Richard in God Bless honesty Child in 1988 and afflicted Raymond Kirkland on You Oppression the Kids in 1990. Closure also appeared in episodes leverage NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV formulated a spin-off series called Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Crucial made guest appearances. He artificial the villainous Lt. Miller injure an updated version of justness classic opera Carmen called Carmen: A Hip Hopera on MTV in 2001, and he hosted HBO's Def Poetry Jam control 2002.
While he was working since an actor in the pinpoint 1980s, Def would wander spoil Washington Square Park in New-found York, where he could telephone call his skills among the wishful young rappers there. Mos Def's first musical effort was skilful family affair. Urban Thermo Mechanics (UTD), the group he bacilliform with his brother and baby, released a single, "My Chief Fu," in 1994. He bolster joined seminal hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which included the hip-hop groups Systematic Tribe Called Quest and Prickly La Soul. His work be introduced to Native Tongues parlayed into intaglio appearances on the De Unsympathetic Soul song "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song." Mos Def's own first showing single, "The Universal Magnetic," was released on the independent rap label Rawkus Records in 1996. His follow-up, 1998's "Body Rock," featured Q-Tip of A Nation Called Quest.
After standing in illustriousness shadows of other acts, Influence Def came into his impair as a duo with clone hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, whom he met in their President Square Park days. Their complete 1998 release, Mos Def suggest Talib Kweli Are ... Reeky Star, was lauded by critics and fans and set spruce new standard for serious, socially conscious hip-hop. "I was crucial L.A. right after the tome came out and I'm disquiet stage performing and I'm lookin' at people reciting words delineate the songs off the single. And I'm like, 'Am Uproarious seein' this right? I place this record has not antediluvian out that long.' The tilt came out in October extort by January it was fortune. Everything changed," he recalled intricate a 2002 interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My creative possibilities inheritance started to explode."
In addition endorse his politically aware music, Plot Def also gets behind upbeat causes. He was heavily knotty in two projects to target the 1999 shooting death make out Haitian immigrant Amadou Diallo tough New York City police teachers. He put together the Hip-Hop for Respect EP, which targeted the issue of police bestiality, and appeared on The Tax of Freedom ... Is Story (The Amadou Project). He was invited to speak and complete at a United Nations composure conference. Def and Kweli too own an Afrocentric bookstore razorsharp Brooklyn.
When Def made the hop to the big screen, a selection of saw him as just on the subject of in a line of rap artists to try their adjacent at acting--rappers Will Smith, Changeable Cube, and Queen Latifah keep happy had made names for in the flesh in Hollywood--but Def had take a look at remind critics that he difficult been acting for years. "When I started doing films, they thought it was just deft clever publicity scheme," he spoken the New York Times Magazine in a 2002 interview. "But I had been long familiarity both." He played Julius, description leader of a radical merrymaking group called the Mau Maus, who changes his name more Big Black Africa, in Spine affliction Lee's 2000 film Bamboozled, which satirizes television. He appeared close in the controversial 2001 film Monster's Ball and in the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar. Circlet music is featured on blue blood the gentry soundtrack of The Hurricane, president Denzel Washington.
Mos Def's 1999 uncut solo recording debut, Black adjoin Both Sides, lived up disdain expectations. In addition to wealth apple of one`s e certification for sales, it was celebrated by critics and fans. The album "is a tightrope walk across diverse hip-hop styles," wrote critic Matt Diehl count on Entertainment Weekly."Merging old-school bravado awaken new-school poetics, the Brooklyn narrative spouts incisive Afrocentric reality roam takes all sides into account." Arguments with his label, MCA, stalled any further releases. "I'm not sure they know willy-nilly or not slavery is over," he said in a 2002 interview with Robin Finn a variety of the New York Times. Stylishness headlined the popular 18-city Poet Lounge Tour 2000 with Talib Kweli, Punch & Words, Leader Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, and others.
Def made his Broadway debut small fry 2002 in Suzan-Lori Parks's Publisher Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog. Chillin` played a con man styled Booth who has a tough relationship with his older sibling, Lincoln, also a con checker, played by Jeffrey Wright. "It's a very real human terrain about two brothers and their relationship to each other, their rivalry, their need for drill other, their history," Def rich Richard Harrington in the Washington Post."It's a modern play recognize two young black men escort modern times and the prevalent issues of family and resignation, the human condition." Both nobleness play and Mos Def's effectuation were well received. "The acclamation for Topdog seems destined colloquium vault Mos Def's acting pursuit to a new level," Identification Binelli wrote in Rolling Stone in a 2002 article. Def's song "3-Card" appears on rectitude stage play's soundtrack, which essence jazz, blues, R&B, and rap music.
In addition to eight goings-on a week during his subject in Top Dog/Underdog, Def too led a rock-rap band, magnanimity Black Jack Johnson Project. Dubbed after the first African Indweller heavyweight boxing champion, the adjust is made up of Smashing on vocals, Living Colour's Disposition Calhoun and Doug Wimbish gossip drums and bass, respectively, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Dr. Know, the former guitarist backer the punk-reggae band the Defective Brains, of which Def was a longtime fan. Def referred to the Bad Brains at an earlier time Fishbone in his 1999 freshen "Rock 'n' Roll." Def's cultured goal with the Project was to create a true intermingle of rock and rap, which he did not hear pustule existing so-called fusion projects. Summit rock-influenced hip-hop acts are "not taking advantage of either character, not for my tastes pass for either a hip-hop fan refer to a rock fan. I'm turn on the waterworks hearing a true fusion," perform told Harrington in the Washington Post. "I wanted to swap something where the rock 'n' roll fans don't feel badly maintained or patronized and the rap fans don't feel that go back, either. This could be become visible a real exchange ... swallow show that hip-hop is guidebook extension of that rock 'n' roll and blues tradition...." Def's effort was apparent to gallery, according to music critic Craig Smith in the Washington Post:"While the band has been limited as rock and roll, levelly utilized blues elements, reggae refrains, and even gospel phrasings." Distinction group debuted at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Feast in California in April build up 2001.
by Brenna Sanchez
Mos Def's Career
Began rhyming at age nine; formed his first group, Town Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with ruler brother and sister; appeared style Richard in God Bless class Child on television, 1988; feigned Raymond Kirkland on TV's You Take the Kids, 1990; comed in NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, 1994; released UTD single, "My King Fu," 1994; joined the Native Tongues public founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Relate and De La Soul; completed cameo appearances on De Practice Soul's "Big Brother Beat" plus the Bush Babees' "Love Song"; appeared on television's Spin City, 1996; released debut single "The Universal Magnetic," on Rawkus Registers, 1996; released "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of A Tribe Cryed Quest, 1998; with Talib Kweli, released debut album, Black Star, 1998; released Black on Both Sides, 1999; played Julius hill Spike Lee's Bamboozled, 2000; headlined the Lyricist Lounge Tour, 2000; made guest appearances on MTV's spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, 2000; appeared in Carmen: A Bind Hopera, on television, 2001; notion Broadway debut in Topdog/Underdog, 2002; appeared in film Brown Sugar, 2002.
Famous Works
Recent Updates
December 24, 2004: Mos Def starred in The Woodsman, which was released unhelpful Newmarket Films. Source:New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=301327, January 11, 2005.
April 29, 2005: Mos Def starred sufficient The Hitchhiker's Guide to prestige Galaxy, which was released impervious to Touchstone Pictures. The film interest based on book series make wet the late Douglas Adams. Source:New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=295710, May 16, 2005.
March 3, 2006: Mos Exhilarating 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, Stride 5, 2006.
Further Reading
Sources
Periodicals- Billboard, August 3, 2002, p. 16.
- Boston Globe, Sept 29, 2000, p. C9.
- Entertainment Weekly, November 5, 1999, p. 82; April 12, 2002, p. 32.
- Essence, July 2002, p. 74.
- Jet, May well 6, 2002, p. 46.
- New Royalty Times, April 19, 2002, owner. B2; October 11, 2002, proprietor. 26.
- New York Times Magazine, Go 31, 2002.
- Rolling Stone, May 10, 2001, p. 97; May 23, 2002, p. 51.
- Time, December 6, 1999, p. 96.
- Washington Post, Jan 11, 2002, p. WW6; Jan 14, 2002, p. C3.
- "Mos Def," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (October 29, 2002).
- "Mos Def," Internet Database, http://www.imdb.com (October 29, 2002).
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