MONTREAL, QC – AUGUST 01: Yasiin Bey aka Mos Def performs on Day 2 of the Osheaga Music and Art Festival on August 1, 2015 in Montreal, Canada. (Photo by Mark Horton/WireImage)
Yasiin Bey stopped by Hot 97’s “Ebro in the Morning” to talk about a host of topics, including his recent travel problems with South Africa, his absence from the rap game and today’s current music scene.
Plus, considering Bey travels the globe quite frequently, Ebro asked him how he thinks the United States is perceived now that Donald Trump is in the Oval Office.
“N—– is looking like [this is] the horror movie at the drive in,” said the Brooklyn born-rapper. “The sh– is just looking crazy. … The Europeans are like, ‘What is he doing?’ It’s confusion. They never seen America like this. They’re like ‘Your man is wildin’.’ He don’t even look official in the agency. It looks like he stumbled into the gig … In those other countries across the world, there’s at least some respect for the agency.”
Bey grew to fame as Mos Def when he partnered with fellow Brooklyn, N.Y., native Talib Kweli for their classic 1998 debut “Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star. ”
Afterwards, Bey dropped a few solo gems, including “The New Danger” in 2004, and his brilliant “Black on Both Sides” album, as well as “The Ecstatic” in 2009. But, then he went quiet and seemed to grow tired of the rap game.
Other legendary rhymers like Andre 3000 and Lauryn Hill for example, also have decreased their output, something the Brooklyn rapper talked about.
“Even JAY [Z], he laid back for three or four years and got into a whole other thing before this ‘4:44’ thing came out,” he told the radio hosts. “So, why is it that all these [people are rapping less]? What’s up with the structure around our culture? … Why [are] we not hearing these voices? Why people don’t wanna engage the industries like that? It’s a very good question.”
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Despite being on musical hiatus for a period, Bey is currently on a tour that started Aug. 3 in Seattle, Wash., and concludes Oct. 1 in Los Angeles. According to Rolling Stone, he’ll be hanging up his microphone after that. His lack of desire to make new music could have something to do with the current rap game.
As Bey sees it, the music industry is flooded with too many rappers and it’s even made him less of a fan.
“How are people even supposed to focus on your sh– if there’s 11 million n—– that got new s— out everyday?” he asked. “I can’t listen to all these [rappers]. … I have things to do. The more you become an adult, you realize ‘I’m a f—— adult. I’m not sitting here … I’m not listening to all of these n—–. Why?’ … If some new n—– come through [like] my man J.I.D from Dreamville [Records] … Give me that.”
You can watch Bey’s interview in it’s entirety below and catch his comments on Trump at the 24:35 mark.
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