The Brightest Star is the Black Star

One of the most influential rap groups in the 90's and 00's was Black Star, a group that consisted of two extremely famous and successful rappers: Mos Def and Talib Kweli.  The story behind their name is actually very interesting, Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) More UNIA info , created the Black Star shipping line that was trying to "repatriate blacks to Africa."  Not only did this movement inspire their name, it also caused an epiphany within the two rappers that not all African Americans were gangsters in the 90's, making them some of the most intelligent rappers during that decade.  Not only did it inspire those thoughts but it also inspired their lyrics to explain things that weren't being told in the communities drawing their sound from rappers of that time like Run D.M.C. and Public Enemy.

Technically Black Star only made one studio album "Black Star" in 1998 but toured and made other music from 1990 to throughout the 2000's.  This album, although majorly successful in the "underground" scene, was headed in a completely opposite direction as the hip hop created by artists like Puff Daddy.  But this album still had some great tracks on it: "Definition," "Re-Definition," and "Respiration (feat. Common)."  

The songs "Definition" and "Re-Definition" were in sequential order on the album.  Both tracks with a variation of the same hook but with different feels and verses.  The song Definition is made to feel more old school in a sense with a lighter and more pop-like beat and dryer verses whereas Re-Definition was much more "new school," adding an instrumental aspect in the background. 

Another song that was highly successful off of the album was "Respiration."  This song featured the equally famous rapper, Common.  All three rappers deliver great and deep verses as shown in the video below. 

Overall, they were a great hip-hop duo killing the underground scene throughout the 90's and 00's.  Unfortunately the two were only together for about 10 years and never made more than one studio album.  I'm very curious as to what they could have created and accomplished for the genre.
-Brooks Gonzales