According to Artnet News, Yasiin Bey is launching a new Hip-Hop inspired art gallery in the Port Morris neighborhood of the South Bronx, in New York.  Yasiin Bey and advertising executive Free Richardson have announced the opening of an art gallery next month dubbed, The Compound. The idea for the gallery emerged out of another Bronx-based space called The Compound, a studio and workshop facility that Richardson opened in 2008. The move reportedly comes in an attempt to keep Hip-Hop and art of all kinds in an area known for its rich history in the grander art community.

“The gallery will serve as a space for all mediums of art,” Yasiin Bey said. “Free will run day-to-day operations alongside staff and I will bring in curatorial and special projects.”

“For me everything is art. What often happens is that certain artists don’t get a fair chance, and a lot of galleries don’t accept certain artists. The whole blue-chip world isn’t fair because certain artists that are just as good will never be accepted,” Richardson adds.

The first show at The Compound will feature the work of Jonathan Mannion, a career photographer in Hip-Hop who has photographed genre icons including The Notorious B.I.G., Aaliyah, OutKast, Lauryn Hill, and of course Yasiin Bey himself.

Outkast by Jonathan Mannion courtesy of The Compound

There is no doubt that the launch of The Compound is Bey’s attempt to combat the issue of gentrification that many Bronx natives have been combating and stemming from the Brooklyn natives interview on The Ed Lover Podcast last weekend (Jul 13), where he spoke about childhood trips to the Bronx and affirming his love for the culture.

Details for the new gallery’s exhibition schedule are still being finalized.

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Yasiin Bey is back with a new track entitled “Dec 99th-Local Time.”

Some of you all may just simply know Bey as Mos Def. The Hip-Hop icon announced his retirement earlier this year on Kanye West’s website saying, “I am retiring from the music recording industry as it is assembled today, and also from Hollywood,effective immediately.” He will also be releasing his final album this year. Yasin has been dealing with some legal issues after apparently using a false passport and travel documents as well. He was detained from leaving South Africa due to the dilemma, which led to him postponing many Scandinavian concerts.

Bey shared the new track on his A Country Call Earth Soundcloud that he uses to share his latest music. He also released “Dec 99th- N.A.W.” Both tracks were produced by Ferrari Sheppard, and Local time was recorded DPlanet Studios in Cape Town. “Wherever you are, the local time is now,” is a taste of the notable lyrics he places on the track .

We are hoping for the best for Yasiin Bey is dealing with his legal issues, make sure you show love by listening to his latest tracks and the release of his upcoming album, which a date has not been set for.

https://soundcloud.com/acountrycalledearth/dec-99th-local-time-prod-ferrari-sheppard

https://soundcloud.com/acountrycalledearth/dec-99th-naw

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Yasiin Bey is back to the name Mos Def for his latest cut with production by Ski Beatz. This one is titled “Sensei On the Block,” and it finds Def in his natural element as he drops bars filled with intricate wordplay and symbolic references. Check it out below.

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Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) added another chapter to his exciting life last night when he made his stand-up comedy debut in Montreal, Canada.

Yasiin made his debut at Montreal’s Phi Centre as part of the “Happy Birthday! Shut Up” show. Along with Bey, producer/DJ Kaytranada performed.

Yasiin Bey is no stranger to the comedy world. Besides his experience as a great actor in plenty of comedy films, during Dave Chappelle’s hey-day, the artist popped up on Chappelle’s Show both as a musician and as a bit actor, making it one of the show’s best musical performances when he freestyled in Dave’s whip as they cruised the boulevard.

According to Cult MTL (Cult Montreal), Bey touched on the Drake and Meek Mill beef, “The male ego is a boring place.” He also talked about Kanye throwing away his busted mic at the Pan American Games in Toronto, “I was talking to El-P from Run the Jewels the other day and he said it turned into a bird.”

Yasiin continued to share with his audience, “My dream had been to do stand-up comedy, and I’m sitting down,” he said, referring to the fact that he was sitting on a stool. “Don’t I look like I’m living my dream? I’m here living my dream, and I look like Tyler on the cover of that album.”

If you didn’t get a chance to catch his show, no worries! Watch snippets below.

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“Consciousness [kon-shuh s-nis]: the state of being conscious; awareness of one’s own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.”

A seemingly lost element in today’s rap game, consciousness appears to be few and far between. That is not to diminish or take shine away from those emcees who are still releasing a conscious, self-aware message on records. Peace to those who are, and who push for this type of sound in 2015.

Before Mos Def‘s Black On Both Sides and Talib Kweli‘s Train of Thought (Reflection Eternal) came Black Star. It’s tough to find a place to begin as far as explaining this albums potency and lasting relevance. Let’s start with the duo’s title, Black Star. For those unaware, this was inspired by Marcus Garvey‘s birth of The Black Star Line. In the midst of Garvey’s growing UNIA (Universal Negro Improvement Association) he originated this as a means of transportation. To make a long story short, a series of unpleasant events took place involving informants, corrupted management, misconstrued mail fraud charges and the FBI that led to Garvey’s arrest. He would than spend five years behind bars, followed by him being deported back to Jamaica by way of Kingston, in which he still kept things alive and made moves for change.

Now with a little background on Black Star’s reference for the group’s title, you should have a better understanding of why this album is so major, among many other reasons. Let’s get into the LP.

Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star was released in ’98, prior to both of the their official debuts. In just over 50 minutes, they covered some serious ground in terms of content. There is no need to break down each record, as most of you reading this either love it, own it, or heard it a chunky amount of times. They covered every sound possible, with joints still relevant today for B-Boys, deep thinkers, graffiti writers, narration fiends, mothers, grandfathers and aunts. And most importantly the youth. This is an album you can play to your inner-city middle schools and use as a tool for education.

With production from Da Beatminerz, J. Rawls, Hi-Tek, 88 Keys and Ge-Ology all bases are covered. Another notable factor is today’s overall production versus this raw mid/late 90’s sound. There’s really no argument that most of us real hip-hop junkies probably miss albums to this level of rawness as far as the sounds are concerned. Also, the amount of features is far from oversaturated, which you often find in today’s scene. It’s generally a hit or miss, but this was beyond a win.

Black Star, as mentioned earlier, is an extremely powerful title for Mos and Talib. Did they stop at the title? No. Many records, like “Astronomy (8th Light)”, “Thieves In The Night” and “K.O.S. (Determination)” took unaware listeners to school, beautifully embracing and shedding a positive light on the culture. Also, the pictures painted of inner-city life are overwhelmingly present when you listen to these records, which is still very much relevant for all of us in and out of the city currently in 2015. They didn’t stop in 1998 either. Albums, shows, features and years later Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Talib Kweli are still shedding this light and keeping a positive, uplifting message. Longevity best describes it.

This article was not meant to be another mediocre, time-passing album review of an LP we all know. That would be exhausting. It was written and conducted with intentions of highlighting one, of many, classic albums that uphold a positive message. Hopefully this will inspire two things: a new-jack is exposed to what a timeless LP is, and for some crazy reason the reader does not own or never heard this album to go buy it, along with both of the emcee’s catalogues. The odds of that last one is almost impossible, we suppose. Also, don’t forget to check out Yasiin Bey (Mos Def) and Talib Kweli’s recent moves, as they’re very notable. Talib is really fattening up today’s rap game with his recent Javotti Media successes. Stay tuned, trust us.

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Tiara Thomas dropped straight fire with her latest joint “Fly As Hell”. The 1 minute track samples Yasiin Bey’s (Mos Def) “Ms. Fat Booty” and was filmed in one continuous shot by Shane Adams. If Tiara sounds familiar to you it’s because she was featured in Wale’s 2013 hit, “Bad”. Her matter of fact flow and swagged out demeanor on “Fly As Hell” make her somebody you definitely want to keep your eye on. See for yourself below.

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