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Music Class: Mos Def - Brooklyn

playahaitian

playahaitian

Rising Star
Certified Pussy Poster
* Brooklyn...Stand Up. One of the greatest hip hop albums of all time by one the best MCs ever...period. This song was ill, the beat changes the lyrics changes of flow and delivery throughout.. Outstanding classic forgotten Brooklyn anthem.

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Hey hey, ha ha say what say what
Ha ha bust it yo
Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner
Sometimes I feel like my only friend
Is the city I live in, is beautiful Brooklyn
Long as I live here believe I'm on fire hey
Cause it's the B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-Y-N is the place where I stay
The B-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
Best in the world and all USA
It's the B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
L-Y-N is the place where I stay
The B-to-the-R-the-O-the-O-K
Place where I rest is on my born day
Bust it, sometimes I sit back and just reflect
Watch the world go by and my thought connect
I think about the time past and the time to come
Reminesce on Bed-Stuy when I was pride and young
I used to try and come, to the neighborhood function
Throw on my Izod, say a little something
When I was just a youngin, before the days of thuggin
How me and Charlie Chims, I'm only bugging
Fast forward, nine now I gotta team my seed
I must proceed at God's speed to perform my deed
Livin the now space and time, round the nine to five
For as long as I'm alive, paw I got to strive
I ain't sittin roadside, that ain't part of the plan
I'm out here for my fam doin all that I can
I love my city, sweet and gritty in land to outskirts
Nickname Bucktown cause we prone to outburst
Philosophy redefine us, touch mines I touch back
Walk the streets like a sweet and get beat like drum tracks
Catch no shakes over jakes, we bust back
Bring the marty to your face wit no place to run back
I'm from the slums that created the bass that thump back
This ain't a game clown, play ya James Brown and jump back
What you want, Jack? Young cats stash they jums at
Draw they guns back, momma screams where she sons at
Tryin to hunt that, recurring dream of high stakes
The fourth largest, first hardest, Brooklyn is the place
Settled by the Dutch many years ago
Three billion strong and here we go

*part two*

[Mos Def]
Good MORNINNNNNNNNNGG Vietnam
(We're made in Brooklyn baby X2)
Yo sometimes I sit back, reflect on the place that I live at
Unlike any place I ever been at
The home of big gats, deep dish hammer rim caps
Have a mishap, push your wig back
Where you go to get the fresh trim at
Fulton and Jay got the Timb rack
Blue collars metro carding it
Thugs mobbing it, form partnership
Increase armament, street pharmacist
Deep consequence, when you seek sleek ornaments
You get caught, rode the white horse and can't get off
Big dogs that trick off just get sent off
They shoebox stash is all they seeds gotta live off
It's real yo but still yo, it's love here
And it's felt by anybody that come here
Out of towners take the train, plane and bus here
Must be something that they really want here
One year as a resident, deeper sentiment
Shout out "Go Brooklyn", they representing it
Sitting on their front stoop sipping Guinnesses
Using native dialect in they sentences
From the treeline blocks to the tenements
To the Mom and Pop local shop businesses
Travel all around the world in great distances
And ain't a place that I know that bear resemblance
That's why we call it The Planet
Not a borough or a prov, it's our style that's uncommon
From Sumner to Tompkins to Lafayette Gardens
Wyckoff, Gowanus, in their army jacket linings
Yo, this goes out to my cats in Coney Isle
Friday night out in front The Himalaya going wild
This goes out to Crown Heights and Smurv Village
The 90s, and all my yarda trini Brown's Village
Parkside tennis courts, thirties, forties, and the fifties
The cats out in Starrett City getting busy
To the Hook, to the East, to the Stuy
Bushwick and Canarsie
Farragut, Fort Greene, and Marcy
My Flatbush posse, generals of armies
When it's time to form, just call me
And let this song be playin loud in Long B
If you love Bucktown strongly
Raise it up

[Part 3]
Brooklyn my habitat, the place where it happen at
Live sway and the sharp balance of the battle axe
Irons is brandished at, thugs draw they hammer back
It's where you find the News Two crew cameras at
It's where my fam is at, summertime jam is at
They play Big and get you open like a sandal back
Hotter than candle wax, hustlin' you can't relax
The crack babies tryin to find where they mamas at
It's off the handle black, with big police scandals that
Turn into actions screenplays sold to Miramax
The type of place where they check your appearance at
And cats who know where all the hot 'lo gear is at
The stompin' grounds, where you find a pound of smoke is at
Be blazin' John that have your wave cap floatin' back
The doorstep where the disposessed posted at
Dope fiends out at Franklin Ave sellin' Zovirax
You big balling, better keep your money folded back
Cause once the young guns notice that it's over, black
Brooklyn keep on takin' it, worldwide we known for that
Flossy cats get it snatched like the local tax
The place I sharpen up my baritone vocals at
Where one of the greatest MCs was a local cat
 
Man I'll never understandwhy Mos decided not to stay in this lane this was a MASTERPIECE.

JCOLE basically remade this with forest hill drive
 
durham said:
Man I'll never understandwhy Mos decided not to stay in this lane this was a MASTERPIECE.

JCOLE basically remade this with forest hill drive
Click to expand...

wee-bey-gif.gif
 
Still bumpin :dance: the album till this day...
Brooklyn gets me amped up before I hit the gym...:cheers:
 
www.brooklynvegan.com

Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) celebrating 'Black on Both Sides' 20th Anniversary with shows

Mos Def's landmark solo debut, ’Black on Both Sides,’ turns 20 in October and still sounds great...
www.brooklynvegan.com www.brooklynvegan.com

Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) celebrating ‘Black on Both Sides’ 20th Anniversary with shows
By Bill Pearis September 10, 2019 5:34 PM

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Mos Def‘s landmark solo debut, Black on Both Sides, turns 20 in October and still sounds great, featuring appearances from Q-Tip, Busta Rhymes and his Black Star partner Talib Kweli, and killer production by DJ Premiere, ATCQ’s Ali Shaheed Muhammad, Diamond D, The Beatnuts’ Psycho Les, 88-Keys and more. If you haven’t given it a spin recently, do that and watch videos for singles “Umi Says” and “Mrs. Fat Booty,” below.
Yasiin Bey, as Mos Def is known today, will celebrate the album’s 20th anniversary with a show NYC’s Brooklyn Steel on November 3 with Camp Lo also on the bill. Tickets for that show go on sale Friday, September 13 at 10 AM with an AmEx presale Wednesday (9/11) at noon.
UPDATE: There is also a West Coast show, happening at Berkeley, CA’s Greek Theatre on October 25 with Busta Rhymes, Slick Rick, Erykah Badu, Souls of Mischief and more (tickets).
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum will be hosting a Black on Both Sides listening party on December 13, with a discussion led by UCLA musicology professor Shana Redmond and also featuring Open Mike Eagle, UC Irvine film, media and African Studies professor Sohail Daulatzai, film and TV music supervisor Morgan Rhodes; and DJ Lynnée Denise. That event is free and more info is here.
Yasiin Bey has a few other shows coming up, including appearances at Robert Glasper’s Blue Note residency in NYC in October and Tyler, The Creator’s Camp Flog Gnaw festival in Los Angeles in November.


Read More: Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) celebrating ‘Black on Both Sides’ 20th Anniversary with shows | http://www.brooklynvegan.com/yasiin...nniversary-w-brooklyn-show/?trackback=tsmclip
 
www.vice.com

The Making of Mos Def's 'Black on Both Sides'

An oral history of the legendary record, 20 years later.
www.vice.com www.vice.com

The Making of Mos Def's 'Black on Both Sides'
An oral history of the legendary record, 20 years later.

By Jaelani Turner-Williams
Oct 11 2019, 11:39am
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'BLACK ON BOTH SIDES' COVER / COMPOSITE IMAGE BY VICE STAFF
A year after releasing Black Star, his debut with Talib Kweli, a pre-Yasiin Bey Mos Def dropped another legendary record: 1999 solo effort Black on Both Sides. It was a tribute to his native Brooklyn that was in many ways the last great record of hip-hop's golden age, at a time when the genre was becoming increasingly commercialized. Def focused on creating a nuanced portrait of life on the streets, one that saw him contemplating his own hip-hop dreams ("Love"), the vulnerabilities of being jacked in plain sight ("Got"), and government and water supply corruption ("New World Water"). Black on Both Sides was an act of reverence for home, from a Black perspective—one simultaneously privy to issues of appropriation and the blurring of genre lines in pop music, such as on guitar-tinged standout "Rock n Roll."
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Over soul-driven samples and hard-hitting beats courtesy of the New York-centric production team Def had curated, Def's verbal dynamism still resonates 20 years later. VICE caught up with a few key players from Black on Both Sides—co-producer David Kennedy, engineer John Wydrycs, and song producers Psycho Les and Ge-ology—to tell the story of its creation and reflect on its lasting influence.
David Kennedy (Co-producer): We started recording at Sony Studios, where I had done The Love Movement [for A Tribe Called Quest]. We were taking tracks from producers like Etch-a-Sketch, Ayatollah, and Diamond D. Then, when we moved to Chung King Studios [to continue recording], Ge-ology, 88 Keys, Ali Shaheed, and Psycho Les started bringing more heat. Some producers never made it to the recording sessions but just submitted the beats and we finished the production ourselves. Others, like Etch and Diamond D, were there nearly every day for the first half, then Yasiin stepped up and started creating his own tracks.
John Wydrycs (Engineer): If I remember correctly, when I started working with [Mos], there was some confusion with some of the tapes we had gotten since they had "Black Star" written on them. I believe he had already written songs that didn't make the cut on that album, which in turn helped in the quick turnaround to Black on Both Sides. Whatever he didn't say on the Black Star album, he saved for his solo effort.

Psycho Les of The Beatnuts (Producer of "New World Water" and "Rock n Roll"): [Mos] was always a fan of [The Beatnuts], and we were fans of him too. [In 1999], we were also working on our album, Musical Massacre. We were all working at Chung King, and he would always come in just to hear what we were doing. One day, he was like, 'Yo! If you got beats—boom, just bring 'em through.'
Ge-ology (Co-producer of "Brooklyn"): It was a very pure synergy of how everything came together. We used to hang out in a lot of different spots. [producer] Overtime had a [personal] studio on Clinton Avenue, [and] we all would be there: Mos, Mr. Man Khaliyl from Da Bush Babees, Jean Grae back when she was still known as What? What?, Maseo from De La Soul. A lot of what was really happening in Brooklyn at that time was bubbling at O.T.'s spot. Shawn J. Period lived around the corner from me, and Mos would be at Shawn J.'s house all the time. 88-Keys would come out from Long Island—everyone was very much connected.
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Les: When we was doing it back then, we didn't imagine twenty years later, a classic. I can listen to it now, and Mos Def was super, super ahead of his time. Back then, we was just messing around, having fun. He's always on-point with his stuff, always aware of stuff going on in the world. Just to see Mos Def going crazy over my production, I was like, "Wow." Mos Def just had the crazy flow. The way he put his words together was incredible.
Kennedy: There's so much more to production than just composition. It's putting all those elements together and getting them to work. As the engineer on a project like that, there are lots of decisions to be made beyond the scope of just engineering. We would basically knock out a track every two days, if not daily. It took nearly a year to finish the album. Recording and mixing with Yasiin proved challenging at times, as it's never easy comprehending what the artist's vision is. You can't get in their head, so you have to wait for the magic to manifest itself.
Wydrycs: I attribute the sound to the choices that Yasiin made with Psycho Les [and] the rest of the producers during production—and to David [Kennedy's] mixes. Whenever I recorded Yasiin's vocals, I tried to keep consistent to what I thought David was using, and for "Rock and Roll," I recorded the band with [a] punk aspect in mind, raw and energetic.
[Mos] had already recorded what would be the first two thirds of ["Rock n Roll"], and I guess he wanted to push the envelope a bit more. I walk into the studio, I see the drums being set up, and he explains to me what he wanted to do. Having played in rock clubs in the mid-to-late 80s, I offered to play the guitar. After a few minutes of him playing the lick he wanted, we did a couple of takes. The cherry on top, of course, was the line at the very end.
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Kennedy: [During recording,] Yasiin started bringing in his crew of artists and musicians—like Weldon Irvine, Talib, Vinia Mojica, and Will.I.Am—to lend a hand. Weldon was a great source of inspiration and played on a number of tracks. John [Wydrycs] recorded and mixed when I wasn't needed. We had an extensive recording budget, and there was a constant flow of people coming in and out for various reasons. Some came to eat, hang, and play music, and others came to work, but it all lent to the flow of creative energies.
Ge-ology: "Brooklyn" was originally supposed to be a maxi single that Rawkus [Records] was gonna put out. It was just gonna be me and Mos. The way we recorded it [originally] and how it came out on the album—[it's] two different tracks, really. The original "Brooklyn" is Mos spitting three different verses on my beat. On the album, it's broken up into three different suites. My beat is the introduction beat, but that was not something that I approved of.
I was in DJ Spinna's house one day, and he had gotten the advance copy of the album. He was like, "Yo, your track is different. They did some changes to it." So, I listened to it and I was pissed off [laughs]. Mos was actually heading to [DJ Spinna's] house that day, so I basically ambushed Mos when he got there. Dante has been a friend of mine for a long time, so we used to hang tight. He could have easily told me, instead of me finding out that particular way. At the end of the day, he's an artist; it's his album. What he wants to happen with the song is gonna be the priority.
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Kennedy: It came as a surprise to us that Yasiin wanted to merge the three different productions [on "Brooklyn"] into one composition, but you don't question genius. I just followed Yasiin's lead and made the edits. I was using Pro Tools at the time, so it was a simple one-two to piece together. I thought that Ge-ology's effort could have stood on its own, but it wasn't up to us, really.
Ge-ology: Sometimes people were classifying and putting Mos or Kweli in the "conscious rapper" category, not really understanding who these people were and what they were talking about. Often, people will try to put you in a box when they don't understand how diverse you are or how wide the range of your conversation can be. They were different from other cats, so people who weren't really understanding that conversation—they might have not been as receptive to it. In all art, anytime you're pushing the envelope forward or doing something different, sometimes it takes people to catch up to that.
 

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