In 1996, a single titled Universal Magnetic was released to much acclaim into New York’s hip-hop underground. And over time, the artist behind it — a 23-yr-old with the stage name “Mos Def” who had become familiar to the city’s hip-hop faithful through various collaborations and cameo appearances, most notably with the storied De La Soul — would steadily become one of the culture’s most sought-after talents.
Born Dante Smith in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, Mos demonstrated an early interest and aptitude for the arts — majoring in Musical Theater at New York’s Talent Unlimited High School of the Performing Arts, and notching roles in the TV movie God Bless the Child, and alongside Bill Cosby in the The Cosby Mysteries, while still a teenager.
In 1998, after signing with the now-defunct Rawkus Records, Mos Def, along with his partner, Talib Kweli, released the eponymous Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star — an album that showcased their cultural literacy, their political awareness, their uncommon creativity and, by the standards of the era, made stars of them both.
One year later, Mos released his debut solo album Black on Both Sides, a masterpiece of hip-hop music — a masterpiece of American music — that captivated a generation of listeners and catapulted Mos Def into the ranks of superstardom.
Newer and ever more prominent outlets for his creative gifts soon followed. In 2000, he landed a role in Spike Lee’s Bamboozled; 2001 saw him join Halle Berry and Billy-Bob Thornton in the controversial Monster’s Ball; in 2002, he starred alongside Taye Diggs and Sanaa Lathan in Brown Sugar, and opposite Jeffrey Wright in the Pulitzer Prize®-winning play Topdog/Underdog on Broadway; in 2003, he landed a role in the big-budget Hollywood feature The Italian Job.
2004 saw Mos sign to Interscope/Geffen Records, where, at the helm of his rock band Black Jack Johnson, he released his second solo album: the daringly experimental A New Danger — which notched several Grammy nominations. That year also saw Mos notch Emmy® and Golden Globe® Award nominations for his searing performance in the HBO film Something The Lord Made.
In the ensuing years, work in TV, film, theater and music has continued almost unabated — onscreen in The Woodsman with Kevin Bacon, 16 Blocks with Bruce Willis, Be Kind Rewind with Jack Black, and Cadillac Records with Beyoncé Knowles; in-studio with the release of True Magic and The Ecstatic; onstage in John Guare’s A Free Man of Color at Lincoln Center — with Mos continuing to grow as an artist, and with his artistic and creative renown continuing to grow here in the States and around the world.
But even though much is known about the art that Mos Def’s gifts and versatility produces, little is known of the man — little is known of the artist — behind the art. In Search of Mos Def will both literally and figuratively seek to find the man and artist — searching through his life and loves to find the wellspring of his creativity; witnessing, first hand, the method of his expression; and learning, through his own words, the aims of his unique vision.
This concept summary is excerpted from an original treatment conceived, written and designed by me in 2011. (“In Search of Mos Def” is registered with the WGA West, Inc.)
creative.reconstruction 