Mos def biography imdb top

Born Dante Terrell Smith on December 11, 1973, in Brooklyn, NY. Addresses: Note company--Rawkus Records, 676 Broadway, 4th Fell, New York, NY 10012. Website--Mos Excellent Official Website: http://www.mosdefinitely.com.

Rapper Mos Def's wrangle the sword aggre of hip-hop music is a socially conscious departure from image-driven gangsta winding up. Def came up in Brooklyn, Original York, during hip-hop's golden years brook emerged a multi-talented and celebrated rap artist, actor, and activist. "The rob few years have witnessed the change of Brooklyn rapper Mos Def shun underground icon to overground star," Richard Harrington wrote in the Washington Post in 2002. According to Jonathan Commodore in the Boston Globe, Def has earned his "reputation as an obstreperous, politically minded rapper whose positivist messages of unity, freedom, and self-knowledge override their way" onto his 1998 ep Mos Def and Talib Kweli Selling ... Black Star and his 1999 album Black on Both Sides, of the most acclaimed hip-hop releases of the 1990s. His lyrics besides earned Def international renown as precise champion for human rights and parity. As an actor, he has arised in such films as Bamboozled, Monster's Ball, and Brown Sugar, and improve 2002 he performed on Broadway hinder the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog.

Mos Def's given name is Dante Terrell Smith. He was born December 11, 1973, and he was raised, loftiness eldest of 12 children, in honourableness projects of the Bedford-Stuyvesant and Accustom Flatbush neighborhoods of Brooklyn. He grew up listening to pioneering hip-hop artists like Public Enemy, KRS-One, and Eric B and Rakim. At age nine-spot Def started writing rhymes that echoed the socially and politically conscious text altercation of these artists. He was top-hole gifted student, and he interned apply for a year with the human up front organization Amnesty International.

The talented hip-hop person in charge actually started in entertainment as small actor, not a rapper. His pass with flying colours turn on stage was in smart production of Free to Be Order about and Me in fifth grade. Similarly a teen, he acted in kindergarten plays, off-Broadway, and in community house. He was credited as Dante Terrell Smith after high school on observer. He appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child in 1988 allow played Raymond Kirkland on You Cloud the Kids in 1990. He likewise appeared in episodes of NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries, and Spin City. MTV developed a spin-off series alarmed Lyricist Lounge, on which Mos Cracking made guest appearances. He played say publicly villainous Lt. Miller in an updated version of the classic opera Carmen called Carmen: A Hip Hopera shaking MTV in 2001, and he hosted HBO's Def Poetry Jam in 2002.

While he was working as an mortal in the late 1980s, Def would wander to Washington Square Park call a halt New York, where he could phone up his skills among the aspiring in the springtime of li rappers there. Mos Def's first melodic effort was a family affair. Urbanized Thermo Dynamics (UTD), the group type formed with his brother and sis, released a single, "My King Fu," in 1994. He then joined basic hip-hop artist Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which included the hip-hop associations A Tribe Called Quest and Move quietly La Soul. His work with Wealth Tongues parlayed into cameo appearances association the De La Soul song "Big Brother Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song." Mos Def's own first performance single, "The Universal Magnetic," was unbound on the independent hip-hop label Rawkus Records in 1996. His follow-up, 1998's "Body Rock," featured Q-Tip of Fastidious Tribe Called Quest.

After standing in say publicly shadows of other acts, Mos Excellent came into his own as adroit duo with fellow hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, whom he met in their Washington Square Park days. Their complete 1998 release, Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are ... Black Star, was lauded by critics and fans soar set a new standard for solemn, socially conscious hip-hop. "I was terminate L.A. right after the album came out and I'm on stage execution and I'm lookin' at people performance words of the songs off class album. And I'm like, 'Am Rabid seein' this right? I know that record has not been out digress long.' The record came out invite October and by January it was gold. Everything changed," he recalled skull a 2002 interview with Entertainment Weekly. "My creative possibilities just started add up explode."

In addition to his politically knowing music, Mos Def also gets lack of restraint activist causes. He was heavily knotty in two projects to protest glory 1999 shooting death of Haitian pioneer Amadou Diallo by New York Power police officers. He put together decency Hip-Hop for Respect EP, which targeted the issue of police brutality, promote appeared on The Price of Point ... Is Truth (The Amadou Project). He was invited to speak stomach perform at a United Nations at ease conference. Def and Kweli also entire an Afrocentric bookstore in Brooklyn.

When Cracking made the jump to the voluminous screen, some saw him as acceptable another in a line of rap artists to try their hand renounce acting--rappers Will Smith, Ice Cube, pointer Queen Latifah all had made defamation for themselves in Hollywood--but Def esoteric to remind critics that he challenging been acting for years. "When Side-splitting started doing films, they thought rich was just a clever publicity scheme," he told the New York Period Magazine in a 2002 interview. "But I had been long doing both." He played Julius, the leader confess a radical rap group called character Mau Maus, who changes his fame to Big Black Africa, in Picket Lee's 2000 film Bamboozled, which satirizes television. He appeared in the debatable 2001 film Monster's Ball and elaborate the 2002 romantic comedy Brown Sugar. His music is featured on leadership soundtrack of The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington.

Mos Def's 1999 full-length solo lp debut, Black on Both Sides, temporary up to expectations. In addition disruption gold certification for sales, it was celebrated by critics and fans. Rectitude album "is a tightrope walk bump into diverse hip-hop styles," wrote critic Matte Diehl in Entertainment Weekly."Merging old-school brag with new-school poetics, the Brooklyn story spouts incisive Afrocentric reality that takes all sides into account." Arguments added his label, MCA, stalled any other releases. "I'm not sure they understand whether or not slavery is over," he said in a 2002 talk with Robin Finn of the New York Times. He headlined the accepted 18-city Lyricist Lounge Tour 2000 go through Talib Kweli, Punch & Words, Owner Fuel, Ali Vegas, Jus, Reks, Akrobatic, Swiss Chris, and others.

Def made her majesty Broadway debut in 2002 in Suzan-Lori Parks's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Top Dog/Underdog. Def played a con man titled Booth who has a difficult pleasure with his older brother, Lincoln, likewise a con man, played by Jeffrey Wright. "It's a very real hominoid play about two brothers and their relationship to each other, their competition, their need for each other, their history," Def told Richard Harrington of great consequence the Washington Post."It's a modern amusement about two young black men fulfil modern times and the universal issues of family and abandonment, the individual condition." Both the play and Seat Def's performance were well received. "The acclaim for Topdog seems destined collect vault Mos Def's acting career tutorial a new level," Mark Binelli wrote in Rolling Stone in a 2002 article. Def's song "3-Card" appears intent the stage play's soundtrack, which traits category jazz, blues, R&B, and hip-hop music.

In addition to eight performances a hebdomad during his run in Top Dog/Underdog, Def also led a rock-rap cluster, the Black Jack Johnson Project. Denominated after the first African American titan boxing champion, the group is troublefree up of Def on vocals, Climb on Colour's Will Calhoun and Doug Wimbish on drums and bass, respectively, Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and Dr. Identify, the former guitarist for the punk-reggae band the Bad Brains, of which Def was a longtime fan. Brill referred to the Bad Brains extremity Fishbone in his 1999 song "Rock 'n' Roll." Def's artistic goal fit the Project was to create calligraphic true blend of rock and squash, which he did not hear exclaim existing so-called fusion projects. Most rock-influenced hip-hop acts are "not taking drop of either genre, not for futile tastes as either a hip-hop follower or a rock fan. I'm party hearing a true fusion," he unwritten Harrington in the Washington Post. "I wanted to do something where rectitude rock 'n' roll fans don't physical contact neglected or patronized and the rap fans don't feel that way, either. This could be like a valid exchange ... and show that rap is an extension of that sway 'n' roll and blues tradition...." Def's effort was apparent to listeners, according to music critic Craig Smith shaggy dog story the Washington Post:"While the band has been categorized as rock and knock down, it utilized blues elements, reggae refrains, and even gospel phrasings." The collection debuted at the Coachella Valley Opus and Arts Festival in California girder April of 2001.

by Brenna Sanchez

Mos Def's Career

Began rhyming at age nine; formed his first group, Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), with his brother fairy story sister; appeared as Richard in God Bless the Child on television, 1988; played Raymond Kirkland on TV's You Take the Kids, 1990; appeared smother NYPD Blue and The Cosby Mysteries, 1994; released UTD single, "My Break down Fu," 1994; joined the Native Tongues collective founded by Afrika Bambaataa, which included A Tribe Called Quest gleam De La Soul; made cameo convention on De La Soul's "Big Kin Beat" and the Bush Babees' "Love Song"; appeared on television's Spin City, 1996; released debut single "The Prevalent Magnetic," on Rawkus Records, 1996; on the rampage "Body Rock," featuring Q-Tip of Marvellous Tribe Called Quest, 1998; with Talib Kweli, released debut album, Black Star, 1998; released Black on Both Sides, 1999; played Julius in Spike Lee's Bamboozled, 2000; headlined the Lyricist Tour, 2000; made guest appearances fascinate MTV's spin-off show, Lyricist Lounge, 2000; appeared in Carmen: A Hip Hopera, on television, 2001; made Broadway opening in Topdog/Underdog, 2002; appeared in ep Brown Sugar, 2002.

Famous Works

Recent Updates

December 24, 2004: Mos Def starred in The Woodsman, which was released by Newmarket Films. Source:New York Times, movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=301327, Jan 11, 2005.

April 29, 2005: Mos Brilliant starred in The Hitchhiker's Guide rise and fall the Galaxy, which was released by virtue of Touchstone Pictures. The film is home-grown on book series by the socialize Douglas Adams. Source:New York Times, http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=295710, May 16, 2005.

March 3, 2006: Rule Def 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, March 5, 2006.

Mos def biography imdb top

Mos Def's Career

Famous Works

Recent Updates

Further Reading