How did Mos Def and Talib Kweli meet in New York?
Black Star were a significant force of New York’s underground hip-hop scene of the late ’90s, with its two MCs, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, establishing themselves as shining examples of the era’s conscious rap scene. Their individual skill was matched only by the chemistry that they so viscerally shared when they were both on the mic.
Mos and Talib, who both grew up in Brooklyn, each became deeply passionate about hip-hop as young people, but they were each interested in acting, too. Talib studied experimental theater at New York University as a young man, whereas Mos was a working actor by the time he was a teenager.
Talib, during an appearance on Desus & Mero in 2017, recalled how he had already known of Mos before they had actually become friends. That’s because he was, as Talib phrased it, already “hood-famous” at the time.
While Talib had been modestly honing his craft by freestyling in parks alongside other rappers, Mos had already found some success in the world of work. He had a job in television, and, with the money he made through it, he “used to come around [to] buy people hamburgers.”
Mos, as Talib tells it, was generous with the money he made from his TV gigs, but he was, of course, about more than just acting. He was into rapping, too, and he would join in with Talib and the others when he could. He was also a part of a group called Medina Green around that period, so he had a bit of a reputation as an MC, too.
Talib noted that he had been “a fan” of Mos around this time, even though they didn’t yet know each other very well. That changed when they got to know each other in the context of both being fathers to young kids. They each had children that were roughly the same age, so they built a friendship based, initially, around their experiences with that.
Talib worked at a bookstore around this time, and Mos was known to drop in from time to time and, eventually, they started hanging out at each other’s houses, too. Through these interactions, they “developed a family bond” before they ever “talked about doing music.”
Their friendship was built on more important things than just music alone. “We just became family,” Talib recalled, attributing their bond to “that young Brooklyn dad-talk.”
Talib and Mos joined forces as Black Star in 1996, releasing their debut LP, Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, two years later. They had each intended to release a solo album before a Black Star project had ever been on the cards, but they recognised that their chemistry was such that a collaborative effort should take place first. It proved to be an inspired decision.