Why was Mos Def's career such a disappointment?

[mitter]

He burst onto the scene in 1998 with the Blackstar album, then followed it up the next year with an even stronger solo debut, Black on Both Sides.

The anticipation for BOBS was crazy, and yet he somehow met (maybe even exceeded) expectations and delivered a classic.

On top of that, Mos seemed to be everywhere from 98-00, dropping dope guest verses.


I really thought he was going to be delivering great music and making a huge impact for years to come.





Instead, he seemed to get weirder as time passed, and his presence was sporadic at best.



What happened?

 

[FunkDoc1112]

Acting was his first career and he seemed more committed to that as time went on.

 

[DaHNIC82]

nikkah put out the Rapeover going at Israeli execs and its been curtains since..

 

[mitter]

nikkah put out the Rapeover going at Israeli execs and its been curtains since..

That came out 5 years after BOBS


By that point, had already become a weirdo and largely disappeared (and The New Danger was a big disappointment)

 

[Street Knowledge]

At his peak he was the perfect MC IMO. It just lasted a little bit of time

 

[ManBearPig]

His debut album was a classic and so was that Black Star album and i really enjoyed The Ecstatic.

There been worse

 

[Dylmatic]

1 solo classic and that Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star was a classic and i really enjoyed The Ecstatic.

There been worse

Exactly, not many rappers can say they have three albums as strong as BOBS, Black Star and The Ecstatic.

 

[erker]

Really liked The New Danger




The first one (Sunshine) has prime Kanye on the beat and prime Mos spitting


Blackstar
Black on Both Sides
The New Danger
The Ecstatic

That's not a bad resume at all.

 

[Black_Panther_JS]

Acting took his focus away from the music but after 2 albums like Black Star and Black on Both Sides the bar is set extremely high it's really hard to live up to that

He still has a good discography tho and is probably in my Top 10 favorite rappers so to me he's not a disappointment at all

 

[Morose Polymath]

Cuz he out here cuffing thots 30 seconds after meeting them

 

[Cryptocurrency Scarface]

the Yasiin Bey phase prior to that he was winning



https://www.thecoli.com/threads/mos-def-what-happened-breh.349208/page-2

 

[Guvnor]

I personally think as talented as he is, he just didn't have the work ethic.

It's like when you're super talented you may not work as hard as others and I think that's what happened to him. He didn't put that work in to maintain his talent and though he is creative which is why he comes across eccentric and he is a naturally talented rapper, he would have to put in a lot of work to be able to make "great" music again. He got too caught up in traveling and doing other things then in staying consistent with his craft. With that said I'm a big fan of a lot of the music he has created and who knows maybe he will get to a place of greatness again but as it stands I can't say his career was a disappointment as he has classics and some people do not have that.

 

[TheDarceKnight]

I got the impression he stopped caring that much and wanted to do more than just music. Ecstatic was really dope though. Slept on album.

At his peak he was the perfect MC IMO. It just lasted a little bit of time

No doubt. In his prime he was as good as anyone to do it.

 

[ledge]

I always got the impression he didn’t really want to be a star like that. That was right around the time Jay reached his superstar status and he probably didn’t want any parts of that.

I read a quote somewhere, can’t remember where, from Jimmy Iovine who told Mos that if he gave him another album like BOBS, he’d “take him to the moon”.

Then we get “New Danger”. Which was left of center and threw a lot of fans for a loop. Mostly a disappointment at the time. Seems like he did that intentionally. Next album was True Magic which didn’t even have a cover. It was seemed like Mos wanted to stay being an artist’s artist rather than a star. Just my theory.

 

[doggy]

I love Mos Defs career but I get what you mean. I was expecting more classics and kinda hit the feeling he didn’t care about music anymore