Having released just four solo albums in a near-15 year career, Mos Def is not one of hip-hop's prolifics, but a man who favours quality over quantity. With his acting career going Hollywood in the last decade it's been the love rather than the lolly that's kept his relationship with rap alive. Here are his ten best creations...

 

10. U R The One (2006)

 

 

Undeniable won him a third Grammy nomination for Best Solo Rap Performance (alongside the likes of Lupé and Missy), but this – alongside the beautifully simple and aspirational There Is A Way – is the real soul of the vastly-underrated 'True Magic'.

Talking bitter divorce, Mos struggles to keep it together but stays just the right side of the line dividing blues and self-pity, despite an air of real desolation ("Can't explain the changes, behaviours is outlandish/ Now I'm just stuck in the road feeling stranded"). Nails vulnerability in a way that hip-hop so rarely can.

 

 

9. Sex, Love & Money (2004)

 

 

The recording of sophomore LP The New Danger was a protracted old business. Mos' original plan involved the formation of a rock band, Black Jack Johnson, though the recorded side of the project ended up amounting to a couple of solo album tracks instead.

This, the first single, wasn't one of them but epitomised a big change in mood from Black On Both Sides. We're still in Brooklyn but rather than shouting from the rooftops, we're creeping around after dark in the shadows. Reconnecting with the ghetto over a sinister flute riff and doomy, rising horns Mos is at his most paranoid ("you sneaky freaky but I know aboutcha") in this one.

 

 

8. Two Words (2004)

 

 

Kanye West proved on his debut solo LP that he wasn't just a behind-the-desk boffin but a rapidly improving, thoughtful spitter too. There's no disputing the real star of this standout College Dropout track though, with Mos sounding more angry, righteous and focussed than ever.

He drops the first verse, demanding the world's attention and calling it to action against a litany of social ills ("We won't stop shit, everybody move!"). Kanye's track is heavily layered with harp, strings and choir but keeps an uncluttered feel grace of its bluff beats and a yearning guitar lick.

 

 

7. Twilight Speedball (2009)

 

 

The second track from fourth album The Ecstatic means business, a weird juxtaposition of playful ("Have fun y'all", he announces at the beginning over an ominous brass call) and purposeful over an uncomplicated but rich horn and glockenspiel combo laid down by The Neptunes' Chad Hugo.

Very probably piqued by criticism doubting his commitment to hip-hop in the light of his burgeoning acting career, Mos plays to the genre's key points but leaves nobody in doubt that he means it on this album - "Life is a game I heard the homies say, but I came to win – Dante."

 

 

6. Body Rock feat. Q-Tip & Tash (1998)

 

 

The swaggering centerpiece of the first Lyricist Lounge album celebrates the legendary NYC-based open mic night of the same name. Mos, Q-Tip and Tash get the party started over a funky, fly Shawn J.Period track.

The lyrical flow really captures the appropriate live feel. It has the feeling of a particularly successful improv, with Mos even feeling free enough to have a rare boast ("Relax and pull a seat up, make your landlord turn the heat up/Got the opposition shook like Tiger Woods about to tee up"). His adaptation of his normal style makes this one a gem.

 

 

5. Universal Magnetic (1997)

 

 

His first solo single, Mos is marking out his territory; very much on the old skool, Native Tongues side of the game. Produced by Shawn J. Period, the primitive, skeletal opening beats recall Doug E.Fresh and Run DMC before breaking down into a weightless, keys-driven joint resembling post-Prince Paul De La Soul.

A big underground hit, the smart rap asks hip-hop to re-evaluate and consider its core values, but with real wit and verve ("Nondescriptive fiending for riches, calling earths bitches/ But most of y'all brothers is living with your mothers"). Mos had arrived.

 

 

4. Auditorium feat. Slick Rick (2009)

 

 

Mos referred to his guest spot on De La Soul's Big Brother Beat (from 1996's Stakes Is High) as "like Miles Davis jamming with John Coltrane" but his first collaboration with Slick Rick was the one that a lot of aficionados felt always fated.

A major influence particularly on Mos' early work, Rick The Ruler busts a typically wiry, masterfully anecdotal guest verse over Madlib's track, a nimble Bollywood-influenced shuffle. Mos doesn't feel overawed in exalted company ("My presence speak volumes before I say a word/I'm everywhere, the penthouse, pavement, the kerb") and rises to the challenge.

 

 

3. Definition (1998)

 

 

Mos and fellow Bedford-Stuyvesant local Kweli formed Black Star shortly after the former signed to the now-defunct Rawkus label. Definition, like much of their one and sadly only album together, is ably produced by Hi-Tek, who serves up a characteristically straight-up bouncing beat topped with a sparse, reverberating guitar riff.

A dedication to the passed Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls ("too much violence in hip-hop, why-oh", they rap in the chorus), the album's first single states their ethos – the rejection of gangsta and guns and their focus on promoting black achievement – Black Star were named after the shipping company founded by Marcus Garvey in 1919.

 

 

2. Ms. Fat Booty (1999)

 

 

An early piece of Ayatollah production magic, with the Queens-based knob twiddler creating a hypnotic groove around an expertly double-cut sample lifted from Aretha Franklin's 1965 single One Step Ahead – with a quick spin of the original a big tradition of the Mos live experience.

This stellar backing perfectly complements the rapper's beguiling tale of unfulfilled lust. The first single from Black On Both Sides also sees Mos hint at his crooning ambitions, as he drops the smallest sliver of Gregory Isaacs' classic If I Don't Have You into the second verse.

 

 

1. Umi Says (1999)

 

 

The high-point of Black On Both Sides sees Mos explain his worldview over a soulful, jazzy jam. "I ain't no perfect man/I'm trying to do the best that I can," he sings, extolling the virtues of simply having the courage and faith to live your life. Lyrically a sort of spiritual brother to Candi Stanton's You Got The Love, musically it bears closer relation to the likes of Gil Scott-Heron.

The title refers to his nickname for his mother, Sheron (he also namechecks 'Abi', his father Abdul, in the following line), who he credits with giving him his positive outlook. Enduringly stunning, as you can see from this live version recorded in 2005 for Dave Chappelle's Block Party.

 

Words: Andy Brassell

 

So what's your favourite Mos Def track? Let us know in the Comments section below...

 

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