EM: You co-own a bookstore with Talib Kweli, The Nkiru Center for Education & Culture located in Brooklyn. Could you tell us the story behind that? Mos Def: Kweli was working there and the bookstore fell on hard times and we took it over and we turned it into a cultural foundation because we wanted to take the pressure off of it being just a bookstore. Actually it was my father’s idea to do it and it was an excellent idea…we just wanted to be a resource within the community…stimulating literacy and just having a different level of information available…(laugh) Barnes and Noble ain’t comin’ any time soon… EM: Education is something you feel is definitely needed… Mos Def: I mean it depends…I’m down for anybody who’s gonna get a bachelors or a masters but learning never ends…you always gotta be teaching yourself…you always gotta be challenging the information that you receive from anywhere…or just at least run it through some sort of litmus test for authenticity…people just except anything they hear from a professor’s podium or from a book…they’re really are no sort of litmus test for what is and what ain’t real…and the biggest litmus test for the truth is common sense…people just don’t use their common sense anymore… EM: What are they using? Mos Def: (laugh) I don’t know…hair products… EM: You’re involved with Def Poetry… Mos Def: Yeah I’m doing Def Poetry with Russell Simmons and I think it’s pretty good. I don’t necessarily like every poet on there…and I’m sure every poet on there doesn’t like me…but I think it’s enough different types of poets on there for everybody to get something out of…I think it’s pretty radical to have a half hour of prime time cable television where there’s no half naked people…we have a whole bunch of music and people just talkin’ and saying what’s on their minds and people actually sitting down for it. We’ve been doing really well from the very intro…Ha ha ha to all the haters… EM: And spoken word is the whole extension of the Afrodiasporic tradition of oral narration, village griots, etc… Mos Def: I think it’s the extension of people’s relation to each other…people talk really more than you do anything; so when people put their thoughts into some sort of format in an effective way it’s pretty powerful…and when people have something useful to say, it’s really helpful to life… EM: So when did you start in the whole game…or do you consider it a game? Mos Def: You know it is a f**kin’ game…it’s a f**kin’ fiasco this rap shit…it’s terrible I hate it… EM: Was it always a game? Mos Def: When you get into it like this it’s like chess…it’s not even like chess…it’s like some other sick game… EM: What about this whole beef between Nas and Jay-Z. Is it a marketing scheme? Mos Def: No…that shit is real. What do people expect? Young people with a bunch of money and delicate egos and a worldwide audience…what would you do? When was the last time you were in your 20’s and didn’t have to worry about money…and everybody wants to be your friend…and every pretty girl wanted to keep company with you…and those real estate agents want to be your f**kin’ friend…everybody wants to be your friend…if somebody said some shit about you…you weren’t even thinking about it…people around be like, “What! I’d go over that nigga’s house today!!” But at least they’re gonna keep it on records…the real shit that’s bothering me that I’m concerned about is the shit between Beanie and Jada because that involves a lot of different crews…the whole Ruff Ryders crew…I know dudes from the Ruff Ryders…I know Styles, I know Jada…I’m pretty good terms with all of them. It’s not gonna be them that get hurt. Beanie ain’t gonna hurt Jada and Jada is not gonna hurt Beanie…but these little niggas with them…these local cool young niggas that roll with them that wanna hold it down for the hood…they men, or whatever…is gonna be the ones who gets hurt…and sometimes it means doing something to lose…they got kids…everybody got a mother…and for what? I bet you no one said what the f**k Beanie and Jada are even arguing for…nobody knows what they beefing for…nobody knows what the f**k Nas and Jay-Z is really beefing for…(laugh) I had to f**kin’ get an update myself to see what was going on… EM: There’s this surge of ‘underground elitism’ in Hip Hop these days… Mos Def: I hate that shit…(laugh) f**kin’ self righteous bastards…we need to get outta here with that shit…I’ll cuss them out anytime. On this tour I asked, “Who got the Blue Print album?” Five people raised their hands…you mother f**ker…why? ‘Cause Jay-Z wears diamonds…it’s his f**kin’ business…he started wearing diamonds…it’s not like he started out working at the Juice Bar…you know what I’m sayin’? C’mon dude’s been wearing pimp hats from the door…you know who he is! He was wearing big f**kin’ diamond chains from back then…he was always just being him…it’s just like people waiting on Common or whoever because they don’t have no platinum on…it’s the same shit…they be holding that shit down…they’re worst than the ghetto people… EM: How so? Mos Def: The total don’t care…they’re gonna take a hit from whoever…the Ghetto don’t have a preference…all they wanted to be was hot…they don’t give a f**k about Dre from Out Kast wearing crazy clothes…if Dre keep making hot music that the street can bang to, they’re gonna bang to it…do the street have a close relation to Jay? Of course because he’s from the street and everybody is not from there. I’m from the street and the ghetto is a small isolated insulated community…it’s designed to hold a small amount of people there so they can be abused…it’s not designed for everybody to be from the f**kin’ ghettos…so don’t get mad ‘cause Jay got love for the street…that’s where he’s from…where else is he supposed to get love from? He ain’t from Harvard…that shit is terrible man… NEXT PAGE >>