Interview with Mos Def

M = Mos Def
A = Alim

A: It?s good to get some fresh air, huh?

M: Yeah, man, I sorta have a rebellious spirit.

A: [Laughter] You?re not cooperating today, huh?

M: No, no, I?m cooperating. I?m just like, ?No, man,? you know. I
mean, it?s good. My people are very good. Like, insha?Allah, they
protect me. But, you know, I?m a very like ? I?m a real regular man. I
like regular things, you know. So, I like just walking down the
street. They get mad at me. I should tell somebody that I?m walking
with you, though. It creates hysteria... Did you ever see that movie
Mrs. Doubtfire? No, it wasn?t Mrs. Doubtfire. The movie with Shirley
MacClaine, and she was the wife of the dead president and the secret
service had to protect her. And she was always trying to dodge them!
[Laughter] I can?t remember the name of the movie. Sometimes, you
know, my folks and my parents, they?re real protective. Which is good.
That?s a good thing. [Mos tells his mom that he?s going to walk with
me, and gets the cell phone so they can keep in contact with him. We
walk into the clothing store across the street to buy a sweater,
something he says he?s ?been meaning to do.?]

A: How did you come up with the title of the album, Black On Both Sides?

M: Well, I did it sorta as a? I came up with Black On Both Sides
because ? I don?t know ? it felt like I was working with both
hemispheres of my brain. I feel like I was just working with the two
sides of my brain. And it was two sides of my personality, you know.
And it was all Black. And I didn?t want to get into that space where I
knew that there was things that I was doing that? it wasn?t that they
were untraditional, but they weren?t the type of things that the media
and the industry are used to hearing from the Black male perspective.

A: Like what?

M: Songs like, ?Climb,? you know. From the Black male perspective in
Hip Hop. That type of thing. And for so long, when we do art like
that, if you do those type of things, it?s like you?re not
authentically Black. Like you?re giving up some part of your cultural
identity, you know, to explore these other sides of music. And that?s
not true. It?s like you?re alternative, you know. And it disengages
you from the community. And I?m not trying to do that at all. What I?m
trying to show to the community is, like, we can do whatever, you know
what I?m saying? We don?t have to be defined as like these little,
one-dimensional folks. Or as the ideas that we have are
one-dimensional, you know. And we can still be who we are. Because, I
mean, so much of young, Black America is like really concerned about
being hip, which is cool. I?m concerned about it, too. I mean, I want
to do certain types of music, but I want it all to swing. I want
people from here to East Oakland and East St. Louis and Detroit or
whatever, in the ghettos and in the university classrooms, to all be
able to rock with it. So, I chose the title because all of this is
just as down as anything you would here from Beanie Sigel or whoever.
Like, I?m feelin a lot of them dudes on a craft level.

A: Oh, yeah?

M: Yeah, man! Beanie?s a monster, man! That dude is a monster, man.

A: What is it about Beanie that makes him a monster, man?

M: I don?t know, man, but it?s just like? I mean, I?m really listening
to more of him. I?m studying him. I?m studying him. And it?s like when
he gets to the point where he?s really like? and I don?t know what his
album sounds like because it?s still early in the game, but if he has
anything that has even like some sly social commentary in it, man??!

A: It?s going to be on then, huh?

M: Yeah, man, he?s a monster man! That guy is really, really, like -
the last time I felt like that about a MC was Biggie. I swear to God.

A: Yeah?

M: Oh, yeah, man. And it?s a few facilities that he?s showing at this
stage of the game that Biggie didn?t have! You understand what I?m
saying? It?s a lot that remains to be seen on him, but the early stuff
on him is dope.

A: What do you feel makes a good MC? What two, three, or four things
that a MC has to have to be a good MC?

M: It?s a sense of personal investment. Temperature.

A: What do you mean?

M: Like, Biggie really believed it in his heart. Pac was like? It?s
the passion. It?s the sincerity, man, you know what I?m saying? That
pushes a lot of MC?s forward. Of course, there?s a lot of other
technical facilities like flow, delivery, a different type of
characteristic, something that makes you distinctive. Slick Rick is
one of the greatest MC?s ever born because he has so many different
facilities that he would use: style, vocal texture, the way he even
would record. Like, he was doing call and response with himself! He
would leave four bars open, and then do another character, you
understand what I?m saying? So, I mean, the facilities of Slick Rick
portray very few MC?s. That?s part of the reason Redman is so good?

A: Why is that?

M: ?because he?s like a hardcore version of Slick Rick.

A: [Laughter]

M: Like, he?s funny. He uses a lot of the same recording technique
where he leaves four bars open. He assumes characters. He?s witty. He
has a very inventive use of language. And he?s dead serious, like, you
know what I?m saying? And he says things that are like true. One of
the funniest lines that Redman said, he said, ?I used to smoke with a
lot of college students/ most of them wasn?t graduating and they knew
it!? It?s such a true line, you know. [Laughter] ?Your boombox better
form a union, because I?ll leave your circuits overworked!?

A: Damn, you remember those lines!

M: Yeah, oh, man. So, it?s things like that. Being able to draw
relationships to certain things. And Beanie?s one rhyme ?I can?t
remember the whole thing? but he just sounds like it?s just this
conspiratorial whisper almost. He?s like, ?First you gotta find a
quiet town, and tie it down.? You know, it?s things like that, that
make a MC very attractive. The only thing from that point is that when
a guy has all the stylistic facilities, you just got to transplant the
content in there. And then it?s like, ?Wheeew!?

A: So, that?s the ultimate thing.

M: Yeah, then you just start killing them! Those are all the things
that I look for in a MC.

A: What do you mean by the inventive use of language?

M: Well, sort of the way like Black Thought sorta like bends his
words. Just to have a unique way of saying things, you know. Doing
things with the language that draws relationships that not everybody
might draw. Just, I mean, being as creative as you can with the
language.

A: You said in one of your liner notes, ?Thanks to my kids for things
that the English language can?t explain.?

M: Yes, there are many things that the English language can?t explain.
I mean, I?m not quite sure, it seems to have its origins everywhere
else but itself. I mean, look in the dictionary. Most of the words
that we use come from other languages. The common thing is to call
English bastardized. When you start to try to communicate things like
ideas of love and warmth, it?s a challenge.

A: What was the concept behind having a song called ?Hip Hop,? and a
song called ?Rock ?N? Roll??

M: Well, it was pretty simple. One song I was talking about Hip Hop
and the other song I was talking about heroes of rock n roll. I
could?ve came up with more clever titles, but I mean, a lot of the
stuff is like exactly as you see it. It?s not nothing deeper. I try to
keep things really as above water, and just as plain as possible.

A: You say in ?Hip Hop?, ?Speech is my hammer. Bang the world into shape.?

M: That?s just something that came to me. It?s my relationship to the
way I?m using language in Hip Hop. You do build your world with
language to a large degree. You build your world with what you say.
Affirmations. ?I?m gonna do this.? ?Things are gonna change.? Then you
start to act out those things. If you tell your children that you love
them and that they?re special to you, then they start to feel that way
about themselves and they start to treat themselves that way. If you
tell your children the opposite of that, then they start to live that
out.

A: Has having children affected the way you look at this, Hip Hop, at all?

M: Of course! In every way. I mean, how couldn?t it? I mean, the
answer to that question certainly couldn?t be, ?No,? you know. Your
kids change you. I can?t really even describe it. Your children just
change you.

A: How did that song ?Mr. Nigga? with Q-Tip come about?

M: It was pretty cool. I mean, he was just on the chorus. It was a
very cool idea, like, a playful idea. It really wasn?t a lot of fan
fare. I mean, me and Tip are pretty close friends. So, basically, it
was just like he came in and did the chorus and left to go work on his
thing. [Laughter] You know, Tip is like one of my family members. It
wasn?t like, ?Oh, man, this is so great to work with him!? I had
already sorta been through that with him. By the time that we did get
to work together we had a whole other personal relationship, you know.
Like, word, Tip is my man.

A: When did you come into your Islamic knowledge?

M: I took my Shahada four years ago.

A: I noticed in ?Fear Not of Man,? you opened up with, ?Bismillah
Al-Rahman Al-Rahim.? Was that important for the album?

M: Well, I had been advised that when you do works that go out to the
public ? written works or spoken works ? that you should bless them
like that, you know. It makes sense to me. The spiritual level just
puts the seal on it. Like I?m making a effort to reach Allah with
this. And, insha?Allah, my efforts will be accepted. I did the Bush
Babees album and when I did the ?Gravity,? poem I started out like
that. So, it wasn?t the first time that I had done that.

A: Is there an Islamic circle of rappers, like a community of rappers?

M: I?ve met some brothers. Yeah, I have met some brothers. There?s a
community of artists and poets and all types of people. Muslims are
all different types of people. But sure, there?s certainly Muslim
MC?s. Some brothers in the Bay Area. There are a lot of brothers, a
good number of brothers doing their thing.

A: About the writing process, do you have a better time to write?

M: I mean, I write whenever I got anything to write. I?m not like one
of these super particular writers. I just need to get it out. I?ll
write on the back of something or hotel stationary or a receipt. Like,
it don?t matter to me. I just write whatever?s in my mind. It?s a
pretty simple process. Like, I write whatever I?m hearing in my head,
and give it some structure from there. Sometimes I?ll come up with a
concept or a idea and I?ll play around with it. But really, a lot of
it is just like writing whatever?s right on top of my heart or on my
mind.

A: What do you feel is the relationship between Rap and poetry?

M: Well, I mean, Hip Hop is poetry. All Hip Hop is poetry. It rhymes.
It?s the difference between technically qualifying as poetry and being
poetic. Not everything that?s poetry is poetic, but all Hip Hop is
poetry. Anything that rhymes is poetry, but it takes something else to
be poetic.

To read the rest of the interview, pick up your copy of "Tha Global Cipha"...

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