Trackmasters: Black Star "What's Beef"

Trackmasters: Black Star "What's Beef" from the Dave Chapelle Show


Well, I think we've done only one other post on Mos Def and I'm really tired of writing about him. You and us, we all say he's a good MC, right? And we're definitely not mad when he turns up in a song or even a movie or in a show...

Nope. We're not mad about this at all. No big deal, really!

Who cares right? So what about when he turned up in a song AND on a TV show? Of course I'm talking about Black Star's freestyle segment on the Dave Chappelle Show, DUH! So it's definately something that I really like (although I strongly doubt that it is a genuine "off the top" freestyle, but we'll let that slide because it's good). Check it:







Seriously? Is that the best quality video we could find. That's just terrible quality, I can barley hear it. So EXCUSE us on that, honestly you shouldn't expect much from us, we're really bad at this. Handing out paychecks to people who find videos with low quality.

Okay, so not that that's out of the way let's move on. Why don't more comdey shows have dope freestyles as a segment? "Because they're not funny" - CEOs of TV. But it's as good as the other stuff. I mean do you really think that anyone tuned into Dave Chappelle, watched most of the show, then saw Black Star was coming on so they switched it over to "Punk'd" or whatever was on? NO. Everyone saw that Black Star was coming on and was like "YES!" (fist pump). And rightly so. They all watched it and thought, "this freestyle is dope".


Now we don't talk about Talib Kweli much here. Why? He's a great MC and that's about it. We buy his albums, we like his attitude, and his songs are good. He never surprises us so that's why we've never written up any of his stuff. So let us officially say here Talib Kweli is one of the best and a lot of people say that he is underrated, but we say he is rated exactly right, he just doesn't have mass appeal because he keeps it somewhat rugged, but not that rugged. Okay, so how does he do on this song? Excellent. I've heard Talib spit these lines in other places (particularly in Going Hard) but I don't know what song came first and I don't care. Talib spits ill, Sun-Tsu.


The chorus is the good uncut. Then Mos Def takes the second verse and kills it talking about real beef. Not from cows but from whatever he lists here! I can relate to what he is saying! I understand! Beef is bad credit and high blood pressure! Gas prices! Yep. This is real talk. This is a strong verse and an amazing "freestyle" much respect to Black Star and to Dave Chappelle for putting them on his show. Word up!


What's Beef Score 9/10