It’s certainly been an up-and-down year for fans and followers of Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def). Be it the announcement of his musical retirement, the saddening final live performances, or even his passport issues which has held him in South Africa since January, only to be recently resolved – it’s been confusing to say the least.
With his imminent retirement ahead, nobody exactly expected the announcement of a brand new album as part of a new a collaborative duo with Ferrari Sheppard, Dec.99th. The release is expected to come out next week.
According to Pitchfork, the album is similarly titled December 99th, and is the result of the duo spending “last year recording in South Africa” while Bey “awaited his departure from the country”. The pair first met in 2013 in Ethiopia, at a time where Sheppard was primarily working as a photographer and journalist, producing music as a hobby. The duo made their debut back in May with the bold and veracious N.A.W., and went on to release a number of tracks such as Local Time, Seaside Panic Room, and the non-album cut HYMN.
After his announcement in January, Yasiin Bey reaffirmed his musical retirement last month, explaining, “I’m moving onto other things, still being creative. Definitely fashion, textiles and just art. Whatever I can create that’s beautiful and useful, that’s what I wanna do.”
During this he mentioned that “exclusive new material” to be released onto Jay Z‘s Tidal streaming platform, and with December 99th charted as a Tidal exclusive, there is certainly reason to believe that this album may in fact be the last we hear of him musically.
It’s going to be okay, we promise.
Whether or not this will actually be Bey’s final musical output is questionable and frankly unlikely, but maybe I’m just jaded and cynical. You decide.
December 99th Tracklist:
- N.A.W.
- Blade In The Pocket
- SPESH
- Local Time
- Tall Sleeves
- Seaside Panic Room
- Shadow In the Dark
- It Goes
- Special Dedication
Album Image: Pitchfork
Header Image: Okayplayer
He has been warning us all year that 2016 was to be his last in the music industry, but now Yasiin Bey (formerly Mos Def) has officially called time, announcing the dates for his last live shows.
It has been a strange year for Bey, and Bey fans. In January, he was charged with “producing an unrecognised ‘world passport’ which was declined by immigration officials” when attempting to travel from Cape Town in South Africa. Apparently a “world passport” is a real thing, but is not generally accepted by, well, anyone.
The 42-year-old then posted a message/freestyle via Kanye West’s website which sounded as if it was recorded on a Motorola RAZR V3 outlining his plans to hang up the boots.
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Although the bizarre message did proclaim that his retirement was “effective immediately,” the Brooklyn born legend has played numerous gigs throughout the year after he apologised to officials and the charges were dropped.
His farewell US performances will be in New York and Washington on both sides of the new year with his last ever gig in the ‘States to be at The Kennedy Centre in D.C. on the 2nd of January, 2017. As reported on Billboard the events will be a celebratory party for one of hip-hop greats and will feature a host of surprise special guests.
He is also playing two shows at the 02 Forum in London on the 26th and 27th of January.
Image: Redferns via Getty Images
It seems like the run of another legend is coming to a close. Following his statement on Kanye West’s website back in January, the acclaimed emcee Yasiin Bey, who you may know better as his former self Mos Def, has confirmed that he is in fact still retiring this year.
Bey has spent most of 2016 in South Africa after he was charged with using a false travel document (the world passport) to leave the country. Despite being out on bail, a new Facebook Live video has seen Bey cancel his upcoming performances, explaining that he is unable to go abroad “due to circumstances beyond [his] control.”
He didn’t end it there though, going on to say that he is in fact “retiring for real this year”, yet still maintained his appreciation to his fans. “I’m grateful to have had the career that I’ve been able to enjoy. As I say to many people… my brother and sisters, thank you for spending your money and more importantly your time.”
He’s not entirely done just yet. He still has two film “commitments” to complete, and musically he explained that some “exclusive new material” will be released for Jay Z’s TIDAL streaming platform, and that his final show will be live streamed from Cape Town.
Fear not, this won’t be the last you ever hear of him. “Apart from that, I’m moving onto other things, still being creative,” he said. “Definitely fashion, textiles and just art. Whatever I can create that’s beautiful and useful, that’s what I wanna do.”
Unfortunately this Facebook Live video was later deleted. So while Brooklyn’s acclaimed ‘Travellin’ Man’ may be moving through places, he’s not going to completely disappear just yet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0exdCRkBniI
Image: RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images
Yasiin Bey (Mos Def in most of our hearts) has released another song as Dec. 99th with Chicago-based producer Ferrari Sheppard.
The track, Hymn was released with the following statement from Bey, “Condolences to the families of the slain. Never stop pursuing freedom.” The song features Bey reciting a spoken word poem about life and death (This is what death can’t kill / This is what death can’t kill: life) over a groovy bass line.
Bey touches on how society has become numb to the violence in the world from watching too many violent videos on social media. “How many views when the blood ooze?” he asks. Hymn was released via TIDAL and is Dec. 99th’s first official single on the music streaming service. Complex notes, HYMN comes to us via the label AWGE which, is A$AP Rocky’s “small but secretive internal art direction team.” Dec. 99th have released a steady stream of tracks including: N.A.W., Tall Sleeves, and Local Time.
It seems that Bey still has a whole lot to say to follow through on his retirement from the music industry. Unless, Dec. 99th is his final album that he promised.
Check out Hymn on TIDAL.
Image: OKPLAYER
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:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEcIUQESfBc
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBY_LrxNX3I
Image: 10and5
Mos Def has gone mad. Mos Def has gone completely mad.
The mighty Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def) has announced his retirement from music. In an audio message released via Kanye West’s website, the New York rapper stated: “I am retiring from the music recording industry as it is currently assembled today, and also from Hollywood, effective immediately. I’ll be releasing my final album this year.”
Yasiin says his retirement is “related but not directly related” to his recent arrest in South Africa over an allegedly false passport, which he says isn’t false and claims has been accepted by South African officials in the past. Which is what he mainly speaks about for the other 9 minutes and 50 seconds of the 10 minute audio message.
Oh, wait. There was also that awkward spoken word freestyle, with the recurring line “no more parties in SA” – a reference to West’s new song, No More Parties In L.A.. “I’ve committed no crime,” he adds. The only crime I’d say he’s committed is this freestyle, so hopefully it’s not an appetiser for his just announced 2016 album.
The message was recorded in Cape Town, South Africa, where Yasiin is currently being prevented from leaving. He says that his ‘World Passport’ (a document issued by the World Service Authority, a non-profit organization) is real and “is not meant to deceive.” A representative for Yasiin has previously told Pitchfork that he doesn’t use his US passport for “social and political” reasons.
“I have reason to believe or suspect there are political motivations behind the way I’m being treated, because this is following no reasonable train of logic, and it’s also curious,” he says. “I haven’t broken any law, and I’m being treated like a criminal.”
Whatever the case, I hope it is sorted out soon so Yasiin can get busy in the studio working on his final album. I won’t hold my breath for fire, it will still be interesting to see what he does next.
To hear his ramblings and the seriously questionable freestyle for yourself, you can check out the full message below.
https://youtu.be/mtAe–O6Iog
As someone who has a residence in Paris, and is a practicing Muslim, you would be hard pressed to find an artist in the mainstream music world that has as much of a connection to the tragedies that occurred over the weekend than Yasiin Bey. Also known as Mos Def, the rapper has long been outspoken of his (always incredibly insightful) opinions, and once again he has put forth some wisdom and shared light on the matter.
Participating in a 20 minute interview, Bey opened up on his unique viewpoint on the matter, and discussed some uncomfortable truths that we should all be discussing. From calling out terrorist group ISIS and their supposed faith, saying, “And, by the way, a big giant ‘Fuck off’ to ISIS.’ You don’t represent nothing about Islam or nothing about the prophet. And another giant ‘Fuck off’ to everybody trying to say ’see, this is Islam’s fault,'” to providing a rather profound yet simplistic take on the world saying, “That’s the measure of a civilisation—not how well you agree, but how well you disagree. That’s civilised,” Bey once again showed he is absolutely one of the more intelligent activists we have.
It didn’t stop there, though. Yasiin Bey also released a new song to go along with the interview which discusses a lot of the themes he was discussing. Titled NO Colonial Fiction, he gets straight to the point with this track. No messing around or beating around the bush, Bey delivers his message eloquently and powerfully.
You can listen to both the interview here and check the track below.