During a recent interview with Audible, Yasiin Bey discussed his early career. The interview was part of a series of interviews in celebration of the 50th anniversary of hip hop. Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, revealed that he struggled to find other artists that were doing what he was looking to do at the time. He shares that he was able to connect his own art to De La Soul's, which he explained wasn't common. The artist is currently making his way around the United States with Erykah Badu on her "Unfollow Me" tour.
“Watching the world just be on fire, you know,” Yasiin Bey explains, “Or at least, my community, with the crime and the drugs." He continues, "And there was a very indifferent attitude towards what was happening to us, too — there was no telethons for crack babies. So I was like, this popular cultural narrative isn’t working for anybody, you know?"
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Yasiin Bey Discusses His Early Influences
“So much got lost getting the game that it wasn’t working. So I started writing, just about what I was seeing, and about what I felt. And my brother, God bless him […] we used to watch TV. Video Music Box," Yasiin Bey continues, "And Common‘s ‘Easy’ came on from Can I Borrow A Dollar? And my brother was like, ‘We can do this!’ So he just started making connects with local talent shows. And a year or two later, lo and behold, I got the deal.”
"As a teenager, though, it was a lot for me," the artist goes on, "Because at the time I was listening to just as much Miles Davis as I was Rakim and De La Soul. I was even interested in Jimi Hendrix, and Bad Brains, and all that shit. […] But thank God for De La Soul. Because, apart from them […] I just had a different expression, something different that I wanted to see that I wasn’t seeing.”
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