Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Back (Star)

So if you haven’t heard, there are these two MCs from Brooklyn who go by Talib Kweli and Mos Def (well, Yasiin Bey), and they made a record together about 13 years ago called Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star. It was pretty good, I guess.

Anyway those guys were on the Colbert Report last night, and they performed a new song called “Fix Up”. Now, Mos and Kweli have been on each other’s albums every so often, but another Black Star album has been the holy grail for years now. So when they hit the stage, not as individual artists but the group, it’s a big deal.

“Fix Up”, is, in my humble estimation, fire. Mos is the one who really shines, partially because he’s been so absent from music the past few years that it became easy to forget he sounds like no one else. The thing that makes Black Star so much better than most collaboration albums, though, are the way the two handle the quick back-and-forth moments in their songs (the closest anyone has come to replicating that rapport, for my money, is the very end of “Why I Love You” on Watch the Throne). The rhythm of their voices are so complementary, with Kweli sounding so consistent and Mos so mercurial. Towards the end of the track we get one of these moments, and it’s glorious. The production from Madlib, performed with J Rocc spinning, is as on point as ever (and it’s worth noting that Kweli brings it over the Madlib instrumental far more than he did on that Liberation tape).

But are we any closer to a new Black Star album, really? The two are touring together presently, re-creating the original album live, so that’s a good sign. Kweli had anticipated that touring would lead to a new creative boom for the duo, and “Fix Up” is early evidence supporting that. Even more importantly, however, it’s evidence that if another album emerged it would not suck (imagine a Black Star album created separately–verses emailed back and forth across the country, with little actual contact–yikes). The world we woke up in today is brighter than yesterday. Hit up Colbert Nation for their interview and a web-exclusive performance of their classic “Astronomy “.