Black Star
No Fear of Time
Listen exclusively via Luminary

The release of a second Black Star album has seemed almost inconceivable. After Mos Def (a.k.a. Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli released Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998), most hip-hop heads immediately started fiending for a follow-up. As the decades passed, attempts to record the duo’s sophomore release hit an infuriating number of snags. It seemed like the project was going to go the way of RZA’S The Cure or Rakim’s Oh My God!—prime examples of long-gestating releases that these much-revered artists could never seem to nail down.

After fans nearly abandoned all hope, No Fear of Time is now out in the world. It’s a weird nut to crack. Talib Kweli and Mos Def collaborated with legendary producer Madlib to record the 9-song, 33-minute project. These often-grim times we’ve living in make for a suitable backdrop for a new Black Star album, considering that both members of the group make music that’s forward thinking and reflective of current events. Furthermore, the recording process and method of release for No Fear of Time are fittingly unorthodox, considering all the parties involved.

I could spend a thousand words in this review chronicling the fits and starts of the process of getting No Fear of Time released. Instead, I’ll just refer our readers to this comprehensive timeline. Suffice to say, in the close to quarter century between Black Star full-lengths, the pair released over 20 separate projects between the two of them. Mos Def had time to pursue a film career, change has nom de plume to Yasiin Bey, retire from making music, and unretire. Kweli now heads the People’s Party podcast, while the pair, along with comedian Dave Chapelle, launched the Midnight Miracle podcast series.

Since the release of the first Black Star project, the music industry is completely unrecognizable from its late 1990s incarnation, and No Fear of Time is as good of an indicator of that as anything. For one, the project wasn’t released through a record label of any sort, but rather is available for streaming through the Luminary Podcast network. Furthermore, the project wasn’t recorded in any sort of studio setting. In the album’s official release, Kweli wrote that he and Bey recorded No Fear of Time in either hotel rooms or backstage at Chapelle’s live events.

Madlib is the ideal production partner to use when an artist is recording without a studio, given the dynamics of many of his previous collaborations. He’s also been involved with Black Star for over a decade, as he produced the first “new” Black Star song, “Fix Up,” which was leaked in 2011. A decade later, in advance of the release of No Fear of Time, the duo put out the single “Mineral Mountain” featuring Black Thought. Though it didn’t end up on the finished album, hearing all three rhyming over an extended version of “The New Normal” from Madlib’s Sound Ancestors (2021) boded well for the quality of the project.

To its credit, the duo doesn’t try to churn out an updated version of their initial offering. Times have changed, and so have Bey and Kweli. Both give the types of performances that we’ve come to expect from them. Kweli uses his verbose approach to crafting verses, but is ultimately still sharp. He peppers his rhymes with references to proto-fascists hiding in plain sight, capturing the malaise of our current political environment. Bey utilizes a laid-back, sing-songy flow that’s somewhere in between what he flexed on Tru3 Magic (2006) and The Ecstatic (2009). He’s definitely more engaged that on some of his more recent projects, striking a balance between contemplative and inspired.

Madlib works to construct a spacey vibe through much of the project, channeling a sparse but futuristic sound on songs like “o.G.” and “The Main Thing is To Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing.” The tracks bear the hallmarks of classic Madlib production, with their roughly constructed loops and disembodied snippets of dialogue running under the verses. Overall, the production gives No Fear of Time a waking-dream quality, where things somehow seem vivid, but not quite real.

“So Be It” is the funkiest entry on the album, with Madlib putting together a track that sounds like it was lifted from a Bollywood Blaxploitation flick. Both emcees kick lengthy verses, with Bey using a modified version of the rhymes he used on “White Drapes,” a song he put out in 2011 in advance of an ultimately unreleased mixtape. He’s incredibly animated, rapping, “Greatest ain’t greater than, strongest ain’t strong enough / Biggest ain't bigger than a real small portion of / The legendary trilotary top rank officer / Get lost, big boss, this boss'll boss you /Chip on your shoulder, I'ma knock it right off you.” Kweli matches Bey’s efforts, entering a zone as he rattles off rhymes. “Calamities, slash catastrophe, add an apostrophe,” he raps. “Your whole philosophy is mediocrity / Atrocities committed in the name of owning property.”

“Yonders” serves as the duo’s dedication to their home borough of Brooklyn, which has been a constant character in both emcees’ music, and “Yonders,” with its eerie synths and muffled baseline, is a unique entry. The pair work to chronicle the lives of the borough’s forgotten residents as they are rapidly displaced by gentrification. “I start a riot every time I voice the unheard,” Kweli raps. “Rhyming in the rough ’til the diamond got unearthed.”

Both members of Black Star get their own solo tracks on No Fear of Time. Bey’s “My Favorite Band” is a vintage soul, almost doo-wop influenced track. Even though the beat was first used by Westside Gunn on “Ferragamo Funeral,” Bey infuses it with his own identity. He ponders the frailty of life, considering how to lead a meaningful existence while on this planet.

Kweli echoes similar themes on “ Supreme Alchemy,” his own solo track. He starts things off with one of the strongest opening lines, rapping, “At the crib, we listen to Madlib / Hi-Tek, Dilla beat tapes and that’s it.” Throughout the sole lengthy verse, he considers the power of life’s spiritual rewards and achieving peace through music. “One band, one sound when we combine,” he raps. “Most rappers just a joke, it's all setups and punchlines.”

“Freequency” sports a thick, jazzy bassline interspersed with a few cymbal crashes, filtered horns and ambient sounds. The track also further establishes that Black Thought needs to be the next rapper to record a full project with Madlib. Much like his performance on the aforementioned “Mineral Mountain,” he’s effortlessly deadly here, delivering the strongest verse on the album. Black Thought spins evocative imagery, promising to “descend into darkness like black Orpheus / The stars of the story is back, y'all see us,” and declares himself “from an era before the views became confused / Comes an American gangster slash Langston Hughes.”

I’ve written before that hip-hop fans have become so jaded that it’s nearly impossible for a long-anticipated album to really become a game-changer. Fortunately, Black Star do not try to “change the game” with No Fear of Time. It’s solid, but not particularly ambitious, and that’s fine. Nearly all parties involved might not be at the peak of their powers, but they created a memorable release that does a lot of things right.

Enjoyed this article? Read more about Yasiin Bey & Talib Kweli here:
Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star (1998) | Black On Both Sides (1999) | Train of Thought (2000)

Notable Tracks: “Freequency” | “So Be It” | “Supreme Alchemy” | “Yonders”

LISTEN to No Fear of Time exclusively via Luminary