mos def
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'Sweetness, Flowing Like a Faucet; Body Banging, No Corset': What's New and Black on Netflix in June 2019?
June, also known as the halftime show of the year, is here—and that means more Strong Black Leading content from Netflix! And the blackest headliner is… Carmen: A Hip Hopera This 2001 made-for-TV movie helmed by the legendary Robert Townsend should be in everyone’s entertainment catalogue, and now Netflix has scooped the licensing rights! Like,…
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Yasiin Bey, Formerly Known as Mos Def, Says Goodbye at the Apollo
He came onstage dropping rose petals and left it dropping tears. The artist yasiin bey (yes, all lowercase), formerly known as Mos Def, spent two evenings in December at the world-famous Apollo Theater in Harlem saying goodbye. After his final U.S. performances (he has three upcoming dates at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.), he…
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If Mos Def’s Black On Both Sides Came Out Today, It Might Be Considered The Blackest Album of All Time
On September 30, Solange released her third album, A Seat At The Table, to remarkably favorable reviews. Social media lit up like the Empire State Building at Christmas with folks proclaiming how woke and Black the album is. Interspersed with interludes speaking to the Black experience from her mother, father, and Master P, the album…
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A Black Man’s Coming of Age in the Age of Obama
In the title of his first book, Invisible Man, Got the Whole World Watching: A Young Black Man’s Education, The Nation contributing writer Mychal Denzel Smith calls to mind three works: Ralph Ellison’s classic Invisible Man, Mos Def’s “Hip-Hop” and Lauryn Hill’s seminal album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. With the eloquence and beauty of…
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VSB Roundtable: How Fake Deep Was Your Fake Deep?
The majority of the people reading this were either in high school or college when Love Jones/Def Poetry Jam fever hit the Bougie Black nation, turning everyone into some awkward combination of Saul Williams and Miss Cleo. Christina Eichelberger posed a great question to the rest of the VSB contributors: How fake deep was your…