It's May 31, 2024, 09:17:58 PM
Quote from: virtuoso on April 21, 2008, 12:44:00 AMHe barely rapped on black on both sides and so the bigger question to me is why he was so revered in the first place. Don't get me wrong I am not saying he was a bad rapper but he was nothing special he just happened to be on a label (ruckus) which stood out from the crowd at the time. Of course the fact that daddy murdoch's money helped promote the label brought him to more recognition also. I don't get your post, I need further explanation to nearly everything you said.
He barely rapped on black on both sides and so the bigger question to me is why he was so revered in the first place. Don't get me wrong I am not saying he was a bad rapper but he was nothing special he just happened to be on a label (ruckus) which stood out from the crowd at the time. Of course the fact that daddy murdoch's money helped promote the label brought him to more recognition also.
This dude was holdin down conscious hip-hop from 98-2001 and then he started thinking he was a rock artist or something and stopped making good music. He seems to have lost his touch.In the late 90's he was a part of two of the greatest conscious hip-hop albums ever.. his first solo album and the joint he did with Talib Kweli. He was also on fire with all his guest appearances, freestyles, etc... proof of this is tracks like "Oh No" he did with Phaorah Monch and Nate Dogg. As a person I still love and admire Mos Def.. but as a rapper, how come nobody talks about how hard this dude fell off?
It's good when artists try something fresh
Black on both sides didn't contain all that much actual rapping (save for half a dozen songs)He gained attention because he was on rawkus recordsRawkus Records was run by Murdoch's son I believeHaving Murdoch money meant there was lots of cash to spend on promoting the name of the labelUsing Oh No as a centre piece for Mos Def's talent isn't going to get far he was average on that track. Monch ripped his verse to pieces and in doing so made Def's verse very bland. Were it not for Mos Def being promoted as one of the "conscious" rappers no one would really care about him.