unique flow, his range of subject matter, and, most
notably, his willingness to address key social, po-
litical, and economic challenges facing the Afri-
can-American community and oppressed peoples
around the world. Album tracks address topics
ranging from the appropriation of rock music
(“Rock N Roll”) to capitalism and environmental
degradation (“New World Water”); “Four carbons
and monoxide / Push the water table lopside / Used
to be free now it cost you a fee / Cause all things
fully loaded they roam cross the sea.” In 2004 Mos
released his second solo project, The New Danger.
The widely anticipated release quickly garnered
critical acclaim.
Mos Def, along with his partner Talib Kweli
and contemporary Common, are widely credited
for the revival of “message rap,” which had been
overtaken in the early 1990s by “gansta rap.” In-
fluenced by pioneers of the genre, including AF-
RIKA BAMBATAA AASIM, Rakim, and De La Soul, Mos
believes that music can and should be used as a
vehicle for collective empowerment. He also rec-
ognizes the potential held by a range of musical
forms. In 2000 he partnered with four rhythm-
and-blues and rock music legends, keyboardist
Bernie Worrell (Parliament/Funkadelic), guitarist
Dr. Know (Bad Brains), drummer Will Calhoun
(Living Colour), and bassist Doug Wimbush (the
Sugar Hill Gang, Grandmaster Flash and the Furi-
ous Five, and Living Colour), to form the rap rock
hybrid the Black Jack Johnson project, aimed at
reclaiming the black roots of rock music.
Mos Def began his career as a television actor in
the late 1980s. He had all but abandoned this career
track until 2001, when he appeared in Bamboozled,
a SPIKE LEE film bringing to light ways in which
contemporary media continue to advance stereo-
typical views of black people. Since his film debut,
he has appeared in The Italian Job, MTV’s Carmen:
A Hip Hopera, Monster’s Ball, Brown Sugar, HBO’s
Something the Lord Made, and The Woodsman.
In addition to his work in film, he has worked
as a stage actor in the Tony-nominated Top Dog/
Underdog and the off-Broadway play Fucking A.
A longtime believer in the poetic value of hip-
hop, Mos Def, whose lyrics often read like poetry,
has been influenced by recognized poets and writ-
ers, including PAU L LAURENCE DUNBAR, CHESTER
HIMES, WALTER MOSLEY, JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN,
and SONIA SANCHEZ, as well as hip-hop artists. In
2002, Mos Def joined Russell Simmons to launch
an original series on HBO, Def Poetry Jam. Mos
served as co-executive producer, host and music
supervisor. The series—a televised poetry slam—
showcases urban contemporary poets as well as
highlights established works and writers, sparking
a revival in the urban poetry movement.BIBLIOGRAPHY
Cook, Dara. “The Aesthetics of Rap,” Black Issues
Book Review 2, no. 2 (March/April 2002).
Melina AbdullahMosley, Walter (1952– )
Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, Walter
Mosley traveled to the East to complete his col-
lege education. In Vermont, he studied at Goddard
College before receiving his B.A., in 1977, from
Johnson State College. While pursuing a doctor-
ate at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst,
he supported himself by working as a computer
programmer. As a way of passing time on the
job one day, Mosley typed several creative lines,
which hooked him to the writing process. In 1985
he decided to study in the graduate-level creative
writing program at the City College of New York,
eventually winning the college’s fiction award.
From there, with the assistance of his writing pro-
fessor, he secured an agent and entered the pub-
lishing world.
Through seven novels, Mosley develops a pro-
tagonist, Ezekiel “Easy” Rawlins, who coalesces
traditional notions of the hard-boiled detective
and the cultural aspects of the black hero. In
doing so, Mosley asks readers to ponder various
meanings of masculinity in America even as they
consume the escapist elements of the detective
genre. Covering a time frame from the late 1930s
to the late 1960s, Mosley’s detective novels col-
lectively chronicle the eventful and challengingMosley, Walter 369