Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star

With a mindset merging street and conscious politics set to subterranean boom bap, Black Star arrived at a crucial moment when hip-hop was struggling to make sense of Biggie and 2Pac\'s violent deaths. Fueled by the first single \"Definition,\" a re-tooling of Boogie Down Productions\' \"Stop the Violence,\" its message of uplifting self-awareness hit college radio and underground clubs like manna from heaven. Other tracks address insolence (\"Knowledge of Self,\" \"Children\'s Story\"), black power (\"8th Light,\" \"Brown Skin Lady\"), and back-in-the-day reminiscence (\"B-Boys will B-Boys\"). *Black Star* offers a down-to-earth alternative to the silk-suited players and roughnecks.

Their 13 rhyme fests on this superior, self-titled debut as Black Star show that old-school rap still sounds surprisingly fresh in the sea of overblown vanity productions.