Mos Def/Facebook This week, Yasiin Bey, the 42-year-old artist formerly known as Mos Def, made the shocking announcement that he is retiring from music and acting. The strange message, a freestyle cell phone rap posted on longtime friend Kanye West’s website, prompted many hip-hop fans to wonder, “What the hell happened to Mos Def?”
To try and answer that question, we’ve put together a little three-part chronology of Mos Def’s unusual transformation, allowing you to follow the talented artist through what has been an enigmatic multi-year period.
2011-12: Name change
The most culturally understood action of Bey’s in the past five years, or at least the action with the seemingly most logical train of thought, was his decision to change his name.
In late 2011, the famous musician publicly announced plans to legally change his name to Yasiin Bey, a name he planned to adapt for recording and live performances, as well as for the big screen. What seemed to many to be a strange decision for a well-established artist was – according to an interview with the musician in GQ – a reaction to “the fear that Mos Def was being treated as a product rather than a person.”
For the public it was big news, but for Bey it seems to have been little more than an attempt to humanize himself. Bey claims to have been using the name Yasiin privately among friends and family since 1999, and the revelation that he was Muslim or would choose a Muslim name was not particularly new; His father was a former member of the Nation of Islam, he openly declared his faith at the age of 19 and mentioned it in many recordings.
In addition, Bey said in a 2011 interview with MTV2 that he would not be offended if people called him Mos Def in the future because he had cultivated his musical persona over the years.
2013-2014: Moving to South Africa, first immigration problems
Just two years later, another personal choice made international headlines as Bey, feeling increasingly disillusioned with the United States, decided to relocate himself and his family to Capetown, South Africa in May 2013.
“For a guy like me to leave America, things must not be so good with America.”
In an interview at the time, the rapper was rather vague about his reasons for leaving the US, but hinted at an overall disillusionment with his homeland, saying: “For a guy like me, five or six generations from the same town in America, to leave America , things are certainly not so good with America.” Still, he wasn’t exactly willing to throw America under the bus, adding: “There are beautiful places in America. I love Brooklyn. New York City should thank Brooklyn every day just for existing. That’s how I feel. It was hard to leave home. But I’m glad I did.”
The decision to emigrate somewhere so far from his long-time musical home, Brooklyn, and to distance himself from the Hollywood universe on which he built his film career seemed interesting and simple at the time, but it may have been short-lived. – visible.
This is because Bey moved to South Africa on a visitor’s permit, which he overstayed. As a result of the culminating legal issues, he was forced to cancel a US tour, including an appearance at the Together Music Festival in Boston in 2014, due to what his camp publicly called “immigration/legal issues”. The music festival then reiterated that fact, saying: “Unfortunately, we have no further information other than that the tour has been canceled due to visa issues.”
2016: More boundary issues, Kanye West’s freestyle and retirement
All of Bey’s immigration problems came to a head on Thursday, January 14 this year, when he was arrested at Cape Town International Airport while trying to leave the country and charged with violating local immigration laws. Neither Bey nor his family had the proper permits to stay in the country. Following his arrest, a court in South Africa ruled that Bey has 14 days to leave South Africa and, although he has the option of appealing for leniency, the rapper/actor could be banned from entering the country for up to five years.
“I’m releasing my last album this year and that’s it.”
Because he had overstayed his visitor’s permit and because he could not or would not produce a valid United States passport, Bey gave airport officials a World Passport, a document issued not by a nation but by the World Administration. World passports are not widely accepted immigration documents, mainly because anyone can get one with a notarized document for a small fee — $45 for a three-year document and $75 for a five-year one. The vast majority of countries and regions do not officially recognize the document, including the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia and Canada.
Bey’s representatives say that although the document is not recognized by most countries, it was previously recognized by South Africa. “He considers himself a citizen of the world,” they said in an interview with Okay Africa.
On January 20, six days after his arrest, Bey posted a 10.5-minute audio clip on Kanye West’s website titled Message from Yasiin Bey. The message begins with the lyrics “No more parties in SA”, a free riff on West’s recently released song No more parties in LAfollowed by several minutes of free rhyming, before ending by declaring that Bey will be retiring from music and film “immediately.”
“Where I live is my choice,” Bey says in the clip. Now out on bail, the musician has been ordered to appear in court on March 8 and his family has been ordered to leave South Africa by January 28.
In a confusing sequence of events that only gets weirder with his retirement announcement, Bey has announced a final album to be released later this year. “I’m releasing my last album this year and that’s it,” he said.
“Peace to all. Fear of nothing.”
We’ll continue to follow this unusual development led by one of hip-hop’s brightest talents, so stay tuned.
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn