I’m heading to see Yasiin Bey, aka Mos Def, perform this weekend, where he’ll be covering some of MF DOOM’s hits alongside his as a tribute to the late legend. So, it’s only right I take a deep dive into the classic rap album, Black on Both Sides.
Coming off of his work with Talib Kweli as Blackstar, this was Def’s debut solo album, and it shot itself straight into hip-hop lore as one of the most influential and well-received albums of all time. Many who listened to Blackstars stuff at the time (I was a little young being born in ‘98), claim to have known that Mos Def had a classic solo in him. But, I doubt they expected anything quite as intelligent, thought-provoking and time-resilient as this.
It’s hard to know where to start with this album, and I’m trying to get in the habit of keeping it brief, but it’s fucking hard in this instance, because it covers so much ground, so many themes and contains a lot of meaning. But I’m gonna try my best, I’d love to know what you think about this album and what aspects mean to you.
1999 was a time when hip-hop and rap were finding it’s feet in the popular music business and carving a unique scene, while simultaneously fusing with the genres around it. Artists like the Fugees and Outkast were singing alongside their raps and seemed the scene was finally getting the international recognition and financial gains that it deserved. It seems as though Def was acutely aware of this, which as one of the most clever rappers of all time, would not come as a shock to many.
Like much of Mos Def’s art, there is a double entendre galore. The cover art is a close-up real and raw photo of Def with no blemishes hidden, suggesting openness will be the theme from the get-go. The flip side is once the back of Def’s head, with cornrows on full display, his blackness on full display on both sides.
Alternatively, or perhaps more complimentary, I was reading something on the Grammy Awards page about how the title Black on Both Sides might refer to the past and the future of hip-hop and black music in general. I like this idea and it’s something I wanted to explore on the album a bit more deeply.
I think that Rock n Roll is a great example of this. On the track, Def talks about his grandmother on a plantation and the music that was born from this, shoots down the claim that hip-hop is rock n roll for black people, by reclaiming it, highlighting the facts it was invented by black people then stolen and appropriated by white people. It then breaks into metal with Def rapping ‘You may dig on The Rolling Stones, but everything they did they stole, Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul… Who am I? (Rock and roll).” Now if we fast forward to the modern day, we have Travis Barker drumming over XXXtentaction, Denzel Curry covering Rage Against the Machine and a whole emo punk sub-genre of rap. It’s a hell of a lot to idea to cram into 5 minutes, but I believe that it’s been done here with meaningful intentionality (even if Def couldn’t quite see the future, but I’m not fully sold on that either).
Themes of blackness, the black experience and everything that comes with it are central throughout, with Def once again drawing from the past through many of the samples used to turn to the present experience of the ‘90s, which continues to permeate society today.
A devout Muslim, Def opens the album “Bismillah ir Rahman ir Raheem”, an Islamic phrase translated as “In The Name Of God, Most Gracious, Most Passionate”, which is often spoken before embarking on a long journey. Then the drums kick in a simple kick and snare. This is a sample from the great Fela Kuti’s 1977 ‘Fear Not For Man’, where Kuti tells black people worldwide that the “The secret of life is to have no fear”.
The name of Mos’ version is clearly a direct nod to that. ‘Fear Not Of Man’, and the rap shares a similar thought. With a nod to the past, Def then looks to the future, with a new century coming, he states that hip-hop “gonna be alright” because whatever will happen to us (people, black community, whoever is listening) is what is going to happen to hip-hop because hip-hop is us, and people are hip-hop. It’s all about not fearing whats coming and the change, but is built foundationally on the past of particularly the black experience, exhibiting black on both sides.
Mr N***a, one of the most famous songs from this album, touches on the limited freedom that a black man can possess in our modern society due to the institutionalised racism that we experience. It talks of how despite attaining success in this world, black people will still be harassed and subjected to prejudice based on their appearance and race. Touching on police brutality, media treatment and society’s general casual racism which we perpertrators are often oblivious to. Once again, Def is exploring a historical issue that carries over from generations of mistreatment, which we have attempted to deconstruct, yet continues to affect our world in today.
The final song that has to be looked at is Mathematics. In my opinion this is the most impressive lyrical exhibition from Def on the album and perhaps in his career. Theming the entire song around numbers and the insight that they can give us into the inequalities we see around us. Using social and economic statistics Def loops back on the fear of the future that the album begins with and the potential “forthcoming live future shock” of a changing society. But once again there is a positive spin on this and a call to harness the potential of an ever-expanding universe which is rife with opportunity for us. Today, as things continue to get more dire around the world and the concept of the colonisation of space becomes more of a potential reality whilst our world simultaneously continues to be plundered be powerful individuals and companies, it seems even more relevant than when it was released.
The depth and duality on this album is mind blowing the more you look at it. I’ve only touched on a handful of the songs in the album to illustrate some of the themes that have stuck out to me, but each song could be picked apart in detail and will link back to these central themes (check out New World Water which directly looks at the commercialisation of essential resources, something that once again is becoming more and more of a concern worldwide). 25 years on, I think it’s incredible how Def used the past to reflect on the present and what it may mean for the future with almost uncomfortable accuracy.
