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WATCH: Yasiin Bey and BADBADNOTGOOD Link Up Onstage

Canadian jazz-hop maestros BADBADNOTGOOD tore it up at the Cape Town National Jazz Festival in South Africa earlier this year, but details of one particular highlight of their set are only now emerging.

Recently released footage of their set shows that the band were joined onstage by none other than Yasiin Bey (the man formerly known as Mos Def) to perform one of his new and presently unreleased songs. Titled Arcade, Bey and BADBADNOTGOOD made a formidable tag-team in the live arena, the former spitting the bars with the latter providing the backing instrumentation.

Speaking to 10and5, the BADBADNOTGOOD lads stated that they had been contacted by Yasiin’s team about a possible team-up a few days out from the festival.

“Of course we said yes, then the next night we went to meet up with him. After a couple of rehearsals we figured out what to play and ended up doing six songs. Three by him, as well as two Rodriguez songs, and Buggin Out as a tribute to Phife Dawg. It was an incredible experience! The rehearsals were magical, we really connected musically which is difficult sometimes after first meeting someone.”

You can watch some of this fantastic mash-up of talent below:

The performance has to be a much-welcomed positive experience for Bey, who has been relatively quiet following his arrest in South Africa earlier this year for attempting to leave the country on a “world passport.”

In the aftermath of the arrest, Bey announced his retirement from the rap game, indicating that he would release a final album later in the year. We’ve already had an indication of how this retirement album may sound, Bey releasing Dec 99th – N.A.W. earlier in 2016. This recent performance with BBNG may be a further taste of what is to come and it bodes well if it is, the smooth groove of the track allowing Bey to show off his incredible vocal control.

Despite the mystery surrounding Yasiin Bey’s future, there are no such issues with BADBADNOTGOOD, their latest record IV streaming courtesy of Apple Music ahead of its official release on July 8th.

Image: 10and5