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Re: DefinitionBlack Star

Released: August 26, 1998

Songwriter: Talib Kweli Yasiin Bey

Producer: Hi-Tek

[Chorus: Mos Def]
One, two, three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one, two, three, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
And Hi-Tek make the beat drop, Y-O

[Verse 1: Talib Kweli]
Redefinition, turning your play into a tragedy
Exhibit level degree on the mic, passionately
Niggas is sweet so I bet if I bit I'd get a cavity
Living to get high, you ain't flyer than gravity
We die hard like the battery thrown in the back of me by the mad MC
Who think imitation is the highest form of flattery, actually
Don't be mad at me, I had to be the one to break it to you
You get kicked into obscurity like judo—no, Menudo
Cause you pseudo, trying to compete with reality like Xerox
Towards destruction you spiraling like helix, wipe them teardrops
Chasing stars in your eyes, playing games with your lives
Now the wives is widows soaking up pillows, weeping like willows
Still more blacks is dying, cause they live and they trying
"How to Make a Slave" by Willie Lynch is still applying
Regardless, the Mos is one of my closest partners
Rocking ever since before Prince was called The Artist
Rocking before Funkmaster Flex was rocking Starter
When 'Pac and Biggie was still cool, before they was martyrs
Life or death, if I'm choosing with every breath I'm enhancing
Stop, there comes a time when you can't run

[Verse 2: Mos Def]
What, lyrically handsome, call collect a king's ransom
Jams I write soon become the ghetto anthem
Way out like Bruce Wayne's mansion, move like a
Phantom
You'll talk about me to your grandsons
Cats who claiming they hard be mad fags
So I run through 'em like flood water through sandbags
Competition is mad, what I got, they can't have
Sinking they ship, like Moby Dick to Ahab
Son I'm way past the minimum, entering millennium
My raps will hold a gat to your back like Palestinians
Ancient Abyssinia, sure to hold the Gideon
Official b-boy gentlemen, long term, never the interim
Born inside the winter, when?
Day after December 10
These simpletons they mentionin' the synonym for feminine
Sweeter than some cinnamon, the Danish rings by Entenmann's
Rush up on adrenaline, they get they asses sent to them
(Gentlemen) you got a tenement, well then assemble it!
Leave your unit trembling like herds of moving elephant
Intelligent embellishment, follow for your element
From Flatbush settlement, skin possesses melanin
Hotter than tales of crack peddling, making 'em
WOOP like blue gelatin, swing like Duke Ellington
Broader than Barrington Levy, believe me
The hot Apache red who burn down your chief teepee
You see me?

[Chorus: Mos Def]
One two three, Mos Def and Talib Kweli
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Best alliance in hip-hop, wayohh
I said, one two three, Black Star shine eternally
We came to rock it on to the tip-top
Because we ruling hip-hop, yes we is rulin' hip-hop
Talib Kweli is ruling hip-hop
Say we Black Star, we rule hip-hop-ah-ahh-ah-ahh-ahh
Whoahhhh!

Black Star

Black Star consists of Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli and they arose from the underground movement of the late 1990s. They released one self-titled album. Though the record achieved little commercial success, they (and other members of the Native Tongues Posse) helped shape underground alternative rap and helped bring it further into the mainstream eye. Both have gone on to greater commercial and critical success in separate solo careers.

Black Star’s emergence into the hip-hop scene came at a crucial point in music history. Following the deaths of both Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur, hip-hop was consumed in a world of chaos. Black Star attempted to bring reconciliation in the wake of these violent deaths.

In a talk with Rap Genius' SameOldShawn, Talib Kweli explains the influence Yasiin Bey had on him as a young hip-hop artist.

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