Mos Def’s biggest problem with modern rappers: “They know who they is”
When Yasiin Bey, then known as Mos Def, emerged in the latter half of the ’90s, he helped to breathe new life into a tradition of conscious rap that had been drowned out by more popular gangsta, money-hungry hip-hop. Mos always fought against rap’s commercialisation, and, while he couldn’t halt its progress, he nonetheless always remained critical of the trend.
During a conversation with Spank Rock for an Interview magazine feature in 2009, Mos elaborated on his thoughts about how musicians should seek to avoid creating “a product” and instead focus on creating art. “You have to get busy,” he insisted.
Claiming that he writes “all the time,” Mos criticised the “machine-like” way that modern hip-hop operates, asserting that he wants to avoid getting trapped in that. “I’m not knocking it,” he said, “but I have my mind on another type of prize. There’s another way to achieve that [success] too.”
Mos argued that, owing to the legacies of racism and colonialism within contemporary society, different expectations are placed upon Black artists compared to white ones. “Radiohead can be as avant-garde as they want and still have pop success,” he argued, “but if you’re Black you have surrender yourself to the flashing lights.”
What he meant by that is that there are pressures for Black artists to conform to industry expectations in a way that is not necessarily true for white artists. But while that was clearly an industry and broader societal problem, he didn’t seem to have much sympathy for the Black artists who succumbed to those pressures.
“There’s a problem with those dudes man,” he said. “They need to be chastised.”
When asked by Spank Rock to name names, Mos declined to highlight any rappers in particular. “The ‘topper-tops,’ you know?” he said by way of explanation. “They know who they is. The people who itemise this, and talk about what they’ll do to you if you talk about them and so forth.”
Mos claimed that he viewed his role as a rapper in stark contrast to these other types. “To me,” he said, “the job of the artist is to provide a useful and intelligent vocabulary for the world to be able to articulate feelings they experience everyday, and otherwise wouldn’t have the means to express in a meaningful and useful way.”
Mos insisted that it wasn’t that those other rappers need “to ‘ball’ less,” but they did, he argued, “need to do something good.” Those who didn’t were the ones he had a problem with.