Black Star

Released: August 9, 2011

Songwriter: Yasiin Bey Talib Kweli

Producer: Madlib

[Verse 1: Mos Def]
What it is, what your name, what you want
Fly while I'm dreamin', I'm fly in real life
Eyes open, bright, show you what it feel like
Soul glo even when light is absent
Shown up, Kweli and Mos are the craftsmiths
Say what, turn the volume up, yes that's them
Song vibrates classic
Pain so hard they you gon' be askin' for asprin
Sick to everlastin'
No way to make it happen, Jack
On the quest to manifest the unimagine, black
What they dealin' with is weak derivatives
You fiend over Benjamins, we seek deliverance
The world that we livin' in is filled with ignorance
Impotence, belligerence, stock market dividends
Smog and carcinogens, global imprisonment
This all be fire beneath cheesy listenin'
This what they play when they slip the ammunition in
Take aim, fire, empty, reload, and they spit again
A holler in a Hoover, cessside where we hittin' them
I'm ready to ride, is y'all brothers gettin' in?
Well make some noise if you with it then
Show the inner city kid there's no givin' in
No givin' up
Flatbush crew, big it up
Let your big Jamaican brother live it up
From the big cat, to the little cup
Cats screamin' "Kill it up, spill it up"
Never be real enough
A punk with a gun
A snatch furnace
She spend work permits
Disperse the skirmish
Green a card to a German
Hot to the touch like the engine rode furnace
Makin' dollars like Parrish Smith and E. Sermon
From the money earnin' Mount Vernon
The East Germans out in Berlin
Crack the park side down to sterling
Mos Def ebonic flow most certain
Block your light like I'm closed curtains
Best of whole good and closed circuit
Brooklyn native black, no merchant
I got them hoppin' like they toes hurtin'
Soul stirrin'
From the old school to the most current
It's on point and on mission and on purpose
Boots on, fiends don't hurt it
The long verse is a strong surgeon's
Straight off the turban
Some Sahara to the suburban
It's emergin', with each version
So each person
Within earshot, get a clear shot
Of red rock
They'll not, see the tear drops
We're here, aiight
Yes yes of course (Right here)
They thought we was gone, we been here, all along
You're welcome (What?)
You're welcome, thanks (Say it again)
You're welcome

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.

Black Star popular songs

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Black Star