Words by Jesse H.
“…Lookin’ like he on the cover of Mad magazine”
I hope the rest of you caught Mos Def’s most recent spot on “Real Time With Bill Maher” in its entirety. What a performance and certainly less contentious than his last time on the show. I’ve never seen any panelist rally crowd support as quickly as Black Dante. He was brilliant, absolutely hilarious, perpetually on point and dispensing wisdom like Pez. He astoundingly trumped Bill Maher on the comedic tip and destroyed condescending-arse Christopher Hitchens on the political one. This coming after his immensely entertaining online clip in defense of MF Doom? Hell, I’ll easily take both those on loop over adjusting to his grating nasal voice on 16 Blocks.
I remember in Block Party how Chappelle mentioned how funny Mos Def was in day-to-day life. But to finally see an artist as reclusive as him (when is the last time you read an interview with him? If you can think of one, was he talking about rap?) finally give a public display of that side of his personality was something special.
Hopefully, he focuses and translates that sparkling personality, wit and knowledge and gives us something better than True Magic in June, the expected month of release for his new album The Ecstatic. He’s got too much musical talent to not give us deserving fans what we know he’s capable of.
Quick Mos Def story: On a return trip to New York, I flew home and found myself at the Times Square subway station at about 3 in the morning. Tired, hauling a huge duffel and walking my broke ass to catch an empty train, I spotted a dude wheeling a bike around who looked exactly like Mos. Just us two in the hallway, so I just had to ask him. Dude offers me this smile and responds in a clearly fake Spanish voice: “No, my name is such-and-such random fake Spanish sounding name.” We kicked it for a bit as I tried to get him to admit he was clowning, but he refused to drop the act, smiling the whole time like he was enjoying the joke.
I’m still convinced it was Mos. Maybe not, but as evidenced by his “Real Time” appearance, he’s so off-the-cuff funny and indulgent in spontaneity that I can just picture him being like “Oh sh*t, its 3 a.m. I feel like riding my bike round New York. F*ck it.”
Previously Posted — Mos Def – “Words” Promo Video | Mos Def – “Brooklyn (Go Hard)”
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Yeah I caught the replay of this yesterday, pretty good stuff, Maher’s show is always entertaining though.
Cats down the road were dissing Mos, saying that he came off kinda ignorant. I think dude managed to keep it light & entertaining & dropped a few gems along the way.
Ignorant? I’d rather be brain-dead than ever say “You completely missed Mr. Rushdie’s point and its a shame you did” with as patronizing a tone as that a-hole Chris Hitchens did. Lol.
Yeh he dude’s got jokes for real.
“..He gon take ur house, he gon legalize weed..” lol
Hitchens is a hole, but that’s his schtick. Best part was Maher clowning Hitchens about his fake Jack Daniels pimp cup.
About 10 years ago CH was ill—great arguments, smart writing, funny interviewee… but as some point he went Dennis Miller and decided that westernized neo-conservatism is the world’s savior and that he’s the smartest person in every room he enters.
All that said, Mos Def while funny could’ve been a little more on point with stuff. I’m kinda tired of folks having to be the “funny black guy” on Bill Maher. Everybody can’t be Cornell West or Michael Eric Dyson—nor should we—but damn, does every brotha that gets on Maher have to come off as a friggin’ comicview parody?
I’m kinda tired of folks having to be the “funny black guy” on Bill Maher. Everybody can’t be Cornell West or Michael Eric Dyson—nor should we—but damn, does every brotha that gets on Maher have to come off as a friggin’ comicview parody?
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He’s a musician & an actor, not a political analyst.
Miles Bennett Dyson
I thought he was good in 16 Blocks.
Mos Def was better on when he was on Real Time Last Year. This year it seemed forced, while last year he was naturally engaging, funny, and made great points.
I think both of his appearances were pretty dope myself. I personally think that the content that the panelists spoke of this time around was more engaging though.
*Currently playing “89′ of Crime” by Camp Lo*
^ Cornell West was there last time for Mos to play off of. This time, he was on his own & I feel he still did well. There’s no denying Mos is intelligent, but he’s more content to play the everyman role instead of coming off as some pretentious douche. This sounds like the same kinda things he’d say in a discussion with close friends.
I thought he was good in 16 Blocks.
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In a weird way I agree. I watched the whole movie the whole while telling myself, man I’m not gonna watch this crap. Somehow they pulled it off & kept my attention. His voice was annoying @ first but by the end I was full-on interested.
Props to Mos Def and all but did you see my baby mama Kerry Washington the week before :-)
Kerry Washington is mad annoying lol.
I caught Mos Def on Saturday morning in the HBO flick “Like Something God Made”, it’s from 2004, never had heard of the movie before but it was a biopic about Vivien Thomas with Mos as Vivien and Alan Rickman as Alfred Blalock. Completely turned it on by accident, I had just finished eating breakfast, turned on the TV, HBO was on from the night before and the movie just started, wound up getting sucked into watching it, but it was actually a pretty damn good movie and Mos did a great job in his depiction of Vivien, whose autobiography remains one of my favorite all-time autobiographies ever.
Mos is a good actor. Last thing I caught him in was “Be Kind, Rewind”.
Funny flick, worth a rental.
Agreed Amp. I really enjoyed “Be Kind, Rewind”
Yeah Be Kind Rewind is a good flick.
mos is smart and funny and maybe even more skeptical than me…that said, he kinda came off a little comic view-ish on real time…he was making points but he was also long-winded and seemed a little rude…just watching it was making me a little uncomfortable
@Gotty, man I even watched the alternative ending on the DVD, where Mos Def opens up this cake shop and bakes one in memory of Bruce Willis, who bit the bullet. Or at least that’s how I remember it.
@El Rosado, never seen that flick, but now I’m interested I must admit. I’ll keep my eye out for it next time I’m at the DVD rental place.
He’s certainly come a long way since The Cosby Mysteries.
BTW, you all seen Street Kings yet? Watched it on Saturday, wasn’t expecting much, but it was pretty good actually. If you see Keanu Reeves coming at you with a telephone directory, you better start running!
Mos is still my favorite rapper…. when he raps.
@sherm: I felt the same way. He would keep going on and on while Bill was trying to move on to other subjects. Mos was hilarious but there was some moments where you could see that Bill was a little annoyed.
@ Baby Paw
Man, there was so much unintentional comedy in that movie. So great. Like when Terry Crews’ character was getting shot and it looked like he was having a seizure. I was dying in the theater.
@Black Canseco:
*bows* There’s nothing more I can say or do to show some love for your comment.
All the videos are down, r-e-u-p g-a-n-g
I watched the overtime segment today and was a little disappointed in Mos Def. It may be because I was expecting too much, but I thought he did a terrible job of representing his intelligence. He asked a valid question, but loss it when Hitchens tried to ride on him for being ignorant. I’m not saying I don’t understand the situation, but I would have preferred for Mos to shut the dude down by saying, “I’ll look into it and get back at you.” Claiming ignorance and not agreeing to do the knowledge wasn’t a good look IMO.