Why Mos Def refused to release an album during Ramadan
Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, wears his religious faith proudly. It was the basis of his name change, in fact, with the legendary rapper announcing the decision in late 2011.
Speaking about his choice, Bey acknowledged that Mos Def was a name he’d “built and cultivated over the years”, one that “the streets” taught him, but which had reached its limits. He’d “done quite a bit with that name”, but he believed it was “time to expand and move on”.
His new name, Yasiin, can be found in the Qur’an, a reflection of the rapper’s devout Muslim faith. He converted to Islam as a teenager, and his faith always informed his life and work thereafter. By 2011, though, he wanted to place his dedication to Islam front and centre, with his very name reflecting that.
He explained at the time that he no longer wanted a “separation between the self that I see and know myself as”. That meant Mos Def had to go, and Yasiin Bey, a name he felt was more authentic to who he really was, needed to take its place.
The rapper legally changed his name and also started performing under it, too, with his faith now making up a core part of his artistic identity, in addition to his personal identity. This remained true in 2022, when Bey and his old Black Star partner, Talib Kweli, decided to revive their Black Star project with a second album.
The record, No Fear of Time, came out in May 2022, but, as Talib revealed in an interview with NPR around that time, it had initially been scheduled for release on another date entirely. The problem was that the initial release date fell within Ramadan. This was something that Bey couldn’t abide by.
Talib mentioned that his rap partner had “refused” to release the record during the important holy month, because he didn’t wish to “distract” his “fellow Muslims from focusing on Ramadan”.
“He stood his ground on that,” Talib noted, “Where people were like, ‘No, we have to release it now’. He’s like, ‘Nope, I’m not releasing it now’”.
Talib claimed that Bey’s songwriting is “always trying to get closer to God”, with his “focus on spirituality”, helping Talib “as a man” and as an artist, encouraging him to “write with a different sort of intentionality”. All of which is to say that Bey’s faith infuses all of his work, including that which was produced as part of Black Star.