Black Star, yasiin bey, Talib Kweli - No Fear of Time (2022) [Hi-Res]

Nearly a quarter of a century after Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli, as Black Star, defined the face of late-’90s independent hip-hop, the duo teamed up with producer Madlib for a 2022 album that served as both a comeback and a farewell gesture. The youthful drive of 1998 is gone: both rappers sound more mature, wiser and more reflective, even when they try to be sharp. Madlib’s beats are more restrained than usual, with a muted, meditative soul-jazz atmosphere. But age turns out to be the record’s main strength: Bey’s calm melodicism and Kweli’s brisk conviction use the memory of the past not for nostalgia but to make sense of the present.

The highlights are “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing,” where Bey delivers evocative abstraction with a self-assured smirk, and Kweli, in one of the strongest verses of his career, answers hatred with love and denounces racism, and “Freequency,” featuring Black Thought of The Roots, set to a meditative jazz fusion from Madlib. For Kweli, politics becomes personal experience; for Bey, it becomes a philosophy of surviving under pressure: no one gets out alive, but no one ever truly dies. Despite the scale of the occasion, the album doesn’t inflate its own importance: from the opener “o.G.,” which restakes the duo’s claim, to the title track with its Greg Tate quote and spirit of mentorship, it remains a model of wisdom without bluster.

Tracklist:
1. Black Star - o.G
2. Black Star - So be it
3. Black Star - Sweetheart. Sweethard. Sweetodd
4. Black Star - My favorite band
5. Black Star - the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing
6. Black Star - Yonders
7. Black Star - Supreme alchemy
8. Black Star - Freequency
9. Black Star - No fear of time