There’s no such thing as an album that’s a perfect 10 – but there those that are one notch below. The 9’s is an occasional series which explores some of those records.
Released: 1999
About
Mos Def (Subsequently known as Yasiin Bey) had already served plenty of notice that he was about to rewire hip-hop for the twenty first century via his work with Talib Kweli on 1998’s Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star, but this first album proper was a revelation. With a roster of guests which spoke to his potential including Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip and A Tribe Called Quest alongside production from Diamond D, Organized Noise and 97th Floor, Black On Both Sides was an immediate classic.
Why a 9?
Now, we’ve got used to bloated, hubristic and frankly boring rap albums over time, but although Black on Both Sides was a CD length seventy one minutes short there’s not a second of drag to it. A project that never stopped to consider itself in the mirror, the invention, understated lyrical confidence and production that zoomed between raw and slick makes for something to be consumed in one long sitting. It’s release date at the end of a decade of staggering growth for the form marked the schism between rap and hip hop, but also allowed perspective and looking back this was a debut that ranked alongside Nas’ Illmatic as one of the nineties most outstanding.
Why Is It Important?
It’s maybe stretching a point to describe Black On Both sides as an underground record, as it went to shift half a million copies when physical product was still a thing. Better still to remember it as a counterpoint from a time just prior to rap becoming king, loud and empty, gassed with fame and host to a number of stars for whom money and fame simply fuelled a Messiah complex. Never matched – Bey traded in the Mos Def handle when it became an inevitable millstone – Black On Both Sides still sounds fresh and fascinating over quarter of a century later in a way much of the music what would follow does not.
You Should Listen To
Ms. Fat Booty, Do It Now, Mathematics, UMI Says, Speed Law.
The Voice Of Unreason 