Mos Def

white civilization to reign supreme by restricting the blacks aptitude to mould their own society. Nonetheless, Kweli calls into question why white culture even has a hand in determining the priorities and understandings of black culture. As a result Mos Def, the other Black Star group member, voices that blacks need to neglect the ethos of this law to identify their fundamental differences from that of the whites. America has created a negative image of black society through “mirages and…

Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Nas, Mos Def, if you are a fan of music, specifically hip-hop, chance are you have hear one if not all of these names before. Aside from all being rappers, they have one thing in common; they originated from Brooklyn, New York. I am going to introduce you to an emcee that would have made the late great Notorious B.I.G. proud. His name is Joey Bada$$, and his first project called “1999” represents not only the golden age of hip-hop in the 1990’s, but also is…

film "Something the Lord Made" directed by nominated and award winning director, Joseph Sargent tells the true story of Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman), a cardiologist and Surgeon, and his young African American Surgical Technician Vivien Thomas (Mos Def), who cooperate as a team using medical research and experimentation to find a cure to cyanosis or in other words known as the blue baby syndrome. The impact on medicine that the two heart surgeon pioneers will have on John Hopkins Hospital…

Introduction "Our language has more rhythmic tones," Ms. Hudson said. To some people, 'she be going ' just flows, it 's just a natural thing." Over decades, Linguists have attest to the Black English Vernacular (BEV) as being a remnants and a fusion of the West African Language used by enslaved persons brought to the Americas over 400 years ago. Enslaved people were denied a formal education, but were required to learn the language to communicate with white master, hence the BEV dialect was…

¨Ghostface, catch the blast of a hot verse, my glock burst, leave in a hearse, I did worse¨ (Ghostface Killah, Bring da Ruckus). Gun toting, murder, and drug abuse are tropes commonly associated with hip hop music and it's culture. Rappers, and those who follow them, are labeled as thugs, ignorant, or downright dumb. They are chastised and outcasted from the mainstream for the mood of their art. However, hip hop and it's culture is incredibly complex. The lyrics that compose the songs tackle…

When it comes to movie remakes, it seems like they are attempting to cash in on a successful Hollywood storyline when in reality they are just repeating an unnecessary movie that was fine the way it was. However, when it comes to this adventurous British comedy, the remake became even better. The Hollywood action remake of The Italian Job is a crime flick directed by F. Gary Gray and written by Donna and Wayne Powers. Released in 2003, the film is considered intelligent and engaging and…

Paul Lawrence Dunbar was one of the most famous poets of his time. His poems were all different ways of expressing slavery, racism, and discrimination. He grew up in a time when black people were being separated from white people, when black people were being hung by different groups of white people, and when trouble was being pointed towards them (Williams). All of these situations he grew up with affected the people that he talks about in his poems (Williams). Even though Dunbar never…

The ghettoization of blacks led to a cycle of blacks being born, raised, and dying in the hood. During the middle of the twentieth century, the city of New York built many new communities to account for the many new immigrants that the US welcomed from all across the world. Many African Americans and Caribbean Americans flocked to the new community called “the Bronx” due to the cheap price of housing and hope for a new beginning. Little did they know, the Bronx was not a place meant for them to…

on drugs or losing their minds. Still, OutKast never conformed and eventually their visual aesthetic became a new way to not only resist limited ideals about what Hip Hop looks like on the body, but more rappers including Goodie Mobb, Common and Mos Def emulated their…

My friend, Jesse, can be described as having a popular centric music taste. Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, and Ariana Grande are among his favorite artists today, with Pandora Radio being his go-to form of music listening. The upbeat nature of the songs Jesse listens to match his personality perfectly, as he is outgoing, eccentric, and has an overall cheerful demeanor. With some of his favorite songs mostly being top 40s hits, Jesse has a consistent, if not predictable, taste in music. Frank Ocean…