Black Star, Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star (Rawkus) 9+
Despite recent comeback efforts from A Tribe Called Quest, The Jungle Brothers and De La Soul, the collective creative energies of that camp seems to have petered out. It's time to pass the baton to new blood to challenge the current reign of the Wu-Tang and Fugees camps. Brooklyn's Black Star are one of the more promising groups to step up. Lyrically they are quick to criticize their hip-hop peers in "Hater Players." "A lot of rich players are making wack-ass music, that's the bottom line! I remember when the worst thing you could be was a sell-out. Then the sell-outs started running things. We call this song "Hater Players" because there are many players who hate the fact that we do this for the love" wrote Kweli in the liner notes. Whattaya say to that Puffy?! They point out the hiphopcrasy of trying to 'keep it real' ("He was out chasing cream and the American Dream/Trying to pretend that the end justifies the means." As the cover art suggests, Black Star are down with roots reggae's ethics and dub reggae's low end. Once they learn to vary the monotone raps with a few catchy hooks, they'll be pulling the rug out from under Puffy and all his flunkies.
