Black Star

Last year Yasiin Bey (FKA Mos Def) performed The Ecstatic at RISING. He sprinkled dead roses on stage. He urged us to free our minds. And, when he bounced in liquid-time to ‘History’, it was so good you almost forgot Talib Kweli wasn’t there for his verse. Well, guess what, Black Star are united. We’ve got them together, live on stage in Melbourne/Naarm, for the first time ever. Bey and Kweli met freestyling in Washington Square Park and going to open-mic poetry nights. When they released their 1998 debut it was more than a great record, it was a statement of defiance. Coming after the shooting deaths of 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G, it was a soulful antidote to violence and ignorance in rap. Hip hop as a vehicle for black liberation. An album bursting from the backpack seams with intellect and humour that referenced everyone from Slick Rick and Fela Kuti to Toni Morrison and Marcus Garvey. They finally followed it up in 2022 with the Madlib-produced, No Fear of Time. Older, wiser, but no less fierce on the mic. Ready to touch some grass or shine a gamma ray on the hypocrisies of America—that “land of opportunity, mirages and camouflages”. Now the Astronomy is correct. Black Star are back on the horizon. Heading to PICA for one night only.