Personnel includes: Mos Def (rap vocals, keyboards, vibraphone, bass, drums, congas, percussion); Vinia Mojica (vocals); Talib Kweli, Busta Rhymes, Q-Tip (rap vocals); Johnny Why (guitar); Weldon Irvine (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, Hammond B-3 organ, keyboards). Producers include: Mos Def, DJ Premier, Diamond, The Beatnuts, 88 Keys. Recorded at Sony Music Studios, Chung King and D & D Studios, New York, New York. Mos Def, one-half of the much loved Brooklyn duo Black Star, breaks out on his own with the most intense solo debut in hip-hop since THE MISEDUCATION OF LAUREN HILL. Like MISEDUCATION, BLACK ON BOTH SIDES stretches the definition of the genre to incorporate all aspects of music of the African Diaspora, from reggae to jazz, to form a new kind of sound. Def sings, Def raps, Def does all that and then some. The wide scope of the album is most evident by the collaborators he chooses to work with, who run the gamut from the underrated mastermind of a Tribe Called Quest, Ali Shaheed Mohammad, to the wrongly unsung hero of rare groove, keyboardist Weldon Irvine. The message in Mos Def's music is that like in blues and jazz before it: hip-hop is not a separate "giant living in the hillside" but a reflection of who we are. In "Fear of Not Man," Mos queries his audience, "next time you ask where hip-hop is going, ask yourself where am I going?" In "Hip Hop" he warns, "hip hop will simply amaze you, praise you, pay you, do whatever you say to, but black, it can't save you." Tracks 1 Fear Not of Man 2 Hip Hop 3 Love 4 Ms. Fat Booty 5 Speed Law 6 Do It Now 7 Got 8 Umi Says 9 New World Water 10 Rock N Roll 11 Know That 12 Climb 13 Brooklyn 14 Habitat 15 Mr. Nigga 16 Mathematics 17 May-December

• Released: 6/4/2002
• Format: CD
• Genre: Pop