What was once Bey’s soft-spoken tendency to murmur words has taken on a lethargic quality, while the instrumentation has become minimal and grey in texture. Bey appears tired, almost lacking direction. Listening to Bey-Sheppard’s De c 99th, for instance, one notices the generally bare and sparse character of the effort-absent are the triumphant choruses sung by the rapper in earlier works. His early pieces possess an exuberance largely missing in his more recent work, despite the latter having perhaps more musical influences and breadth. That being said, Bey is an artist whose best performances are over a decade old. Mos Def, as he was then known, in 1999 (Photo credit: Mikamote) Fat Booty,” a misleadingly titled single that offers a more nuanced version of the typical club-song/anthem. On his debut solo album Black on Both Sides (released by the rapper as Mos Def in 1999 on Rawkus also), Bey offered songs like the aforementioned “ Umi Says,” alongside pieces such as “ Ms. The rapper stood out from his musical peers of the late 1990s and early 2000s by his ability to combine technically dense, clever lyricism with a musical personality that seemed to test the hip hop genre’s boundaries. The show ended with Bey tearing up while singing the lyrics of “Umi Says,” a jazz-inspired introspective work from his first album, to the tune of Burt Bacharach’s memorable hit “The Look of Love.” Bey clearly was alive in the moment.Īs a rapper, Bey has a penchant for humility and self-deprecation which never becomes caricature. Despite the passage of nearly two decades since their last album together, one could feel the camaraderie and friendship on stage. An energetic reunion took place between Bey and rapper Talib Kweli, the two of whom formed Black Star and released the critically acclaimed Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star on Rawkus Records in 1998. In addition, various groups and past collaborators joined Bey on stage to perform old numbers. Numerous songs from the years 1998-2000 received strong applause. The artist appeared to be the most engaged-and received the strongest reaction from the audience-when he performed work from early in his career. The artist paused on numerous occasions to both thank the audience and joke with it, at one point humorously thanking vocal members of the crowd for their “uninvited suggestions” to the show’s set list. Bey, who has been living in South Africa since 2013, was clearly overwhelmed at times by the enthusiastic reception he received from the audience of several thousand mostly young people. performances with the artist rapping, crooning, drumming and at times breaking into dance on stage. The return to music marks Bey’s first studio release since 2009’s The Ecstatic (Downtown Records).īey’s humane and charismatic personality was on display at his Washington, D.C. The first of the three, Dec 99 th, a joint project with producer/journalist Ferrari Sheppard, was released December 9 on Tidal. In late summer 2016, Bey announced that he planned to retire from film and music “effective immediately,” although the performer later announced he would release a trio of albums before doing so. There is a widely viewed YouTube video in which Bey, in a 2013 protest against the barbaric conditions prevailing at the US military’s Guantanamo Bay internment camp, submitted voluntarily to force feeding to highlight the plight of the detainees.

In addition, Bey has taken principled stances opposing police violence, nuclear weapons, the “war on terror” and the US-led wars in the Middle East. Bey has the unusual distinction of having been nominated for Emmy, Golden Globes and Grammy awards. Since first gaining recognition in the mid-to-late 1990s’ hip hop scene, the talented Smith/Mos Def/Bey (who changed his legal and performing name in 2011) has gone on to success in both music and films and television ( Be Kind Rewind, Cadillac Records, etc.). The Kennedy Center shows (December 31-January 2), and a December 21 engagement at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, were collectively billed as the artist’s “retirement” performances in the US. On January 2, rapper/vocalist/musician Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def, born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York in 1973) performed his third and final show at Washington, D.C.’s John F.

Mos def the ecstatic credits