Black Star — the duo of Yasiin Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def) and Talib Kweli — have announced their first new album in nearly 24 years.
Over two decades on from making their debut with 1998's Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, the duo will share the Madlib-produced No Fear of Time on May 3 via podcasting platform Luminary. The album's cover art can be found above, while a teaser can be found below.
In a press release, Kweli shared of the new material, "About 3-4 years ago I was visiting Yasiin in Europe and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be. Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times."
He continued: "There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he's like, 'Play that Madlib tape again.' I'm playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that's how we did the first song. This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It's all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows."
In 2018, Bey announced that a Madlib-produced Black Star album was in the works during an appearance at a Madlib DJ set in Denver. The revered producer had previously joined forces with Black Star on 2011 single "Fix Up."
In 2020, Kweli said "culture vultures" were to blame for the album's delay. The following year, Black Star shared new music via The Midnight Miracle, their podcast with Dave Chappelle.
Bey last released the collaborative December 99th with Ferrari Sheppard, while his last solo LP to receive a wide release was 2009's The Ecstatic. Fifth album Negus, first announced in 2016, was premiered during Art Basel in Hong Kong in March 2019.
Kweli's most recent solo outing remains 2017's Radio Silence. He also hosts another Luminary podcast, titled People's Party With Talib Kweli.
In 2021, Madlib teamed with Four Tet for new solo album Sound Ancestors.
Over two decades on from making their debut with 1998's Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star, the duo will share the Madlib-produced No Fear of Time on May 3 via podcasting platform Luminary. The album's cover art can be found above, while a teaser can be found below.
In a press release, Kweli shared of the new material, "About 3-4 years ago I was visiting Yasiin in Europe and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be. Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times."
He continued: "There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he's like, 'Play that Madlib tape again.' I'm playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that's how we did the first song. This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It's all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows."
In 2018, Bey announced that a Madlib-produced Black Star album was in the works during an appearance at a Madlib DJ set in Denver. The revered producer had previously joined forces with Black Star on 2011 single "Fix Up."
In 2020, Kweli said "culture vultures" were to blame for the album's delay. The following year, Black Star shared new music via The Midnight Miracle, their podcast with Dave Chappelle.
Bey last released the collaborative December 99th with Ferrari Sheppard, while his last solo LP to receive a wide release was 2009's The Ecstatic. Fifth album Negus, first announced in 2016, was premiered during Art Basel in Hong Kong in March 2019.
Kweli's most recent solo outing remains 2017's Radio Silence. He also hosts another Luminary podcast, titled People's Party With Talib Kweli.
In 2021, Madlib teamed with Four Tet for new solo album Sound Ancestors.
