95 North. . . The Newspaper

Black Star represented that rare moment in which two dynamically talented lyricists, Mos Def and Talib Kweli, joined forced to create a moving, poetic portrait of their life and times in New York City. The album, also called Black Star , was released in 1998 and tells the story from the other side of Rudy Guliani's New York. Sure, it's a long way from City Hall to city steps in Brooklyn, but the miles between are documented by Black Star with precision.  Perhaps the largest building built in this city of songs is the track "Respiration", in that it seems to somehow encapsulate the whole spirt behind the album like a thesis statement stapled to the door of landlords, politicians,  and corrupt city cops. The song starts with a minor chord guitar strum, building keys, and a quick story about tagging or spray painting a building, and a phrase softly whispered in Spanish (escuchela la ciudad respirado or "listen to it, the city breathing") before the song ...