Yasiin Bey, formerly Mos Def, is an articulate and intelligent rapper born in Brooklyn. He had a lot of impact through his acting and his activism in relation to his latest musical releases. Let’s learn what is happening with this artist and many other interesting facts about him.
Who is Yasiin Bey?
Yasiin Bey is an American hip-hop recording artist, actor, and activist, but is most famous for his music. He was born on December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York to Dante Terrell Smith, Sheron Smith and Abdulrahman. He is best known by his stage name Mos Def. He is the eldest of twelve children (plusstepchildren) of his parents. Yasiin Bey attended Philippa Schuyler Middle School 383, in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and it was there that he developed his love for acting. He left high school during the second year. He is a Muslim but he was exposed to the religion until he was 13 and at 19 he publicly declared his faith in Islam.
Carrier start
His musical career began with him and his siblings – his brother and sister (DCQ and Ces) – forming a rap group called Thermo Dynamique Urbaine (UTD) in 1994. And although the group did not last long , it marked the launch of Yasiin Bey’s hip-hop career. He would later form a rap duo called Black Star with Brooklyn-based rapper Talib Kwelie, and their debut album was released in 1998 under Rawkus Records. He made his first solo album titled ‘Black on Both Sides’ in 1999. His second solo album titled ‘The New Danger’ was released in 2004 and was No. 5 on the Billboard 200. It was his biggest hit ever. this day..
Mos Def began his acting career when he was still a child and had roles in TV movies, sitcoms and theater. At age 14, he starred in the 1998 ABC television movie God Bless the Child. was produced in 1995. He also featured in the sitcom My Wife and Children as Micheal Kyle’s disabled friend Damon Wayans.
Yasiin has won several awards as an actor. He won ‘Best Independent Actor’ at the Black Reel Awards in 2005 for his role as Detective Sergeant Lucas in Woodman and also won the Image award.
What happened to Mos Def? Where is he now?
Many fans ask what happened to Yasiin Beyet where is he now. First in late 2011, Yasiin Bey, nicknamed Mos Def, publicly announced that he was considering legally changing his name to “Yasiin Bey” and adopting it for his recordings and live performances, already using this name from private way with his friends and family since 1999. He also decided to move his family to South Africa and to distance himself from the Hollywood universe on which he had built his film career.
His moved to South Africa was on a visitor’s permit and he stayed longer than his tourist visa. On January 14, 2016, Yasiin was arrested at Cape Town International Airport as he was about to leave the country on a world passport not recognized as legal in the country. He was charged in court for violating local immigration laws. The court ruled that he had 14 days to leave the country and was banned from entering the country for five years.
Yasiin Bey previously announced in January 2016 that he was retiring from acting and music. He conveyed this message in a freestyle rap released on January 20 via cellphone. The recording was posted on kanyewest.com – the website of Kanye West – who happened to be his longtime friend.
He gave another reason for his retirement in an interview saying he doesn’t want to bring problems home to his family or allow them to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from being in the rap game where the people fight and find it hard to get along with each other. Also in the interview, the rapper revealed his displeasure with the role technology has played in the music industry and the fact that so many platforms are giving away music without compensating the artist who put in their effort.
He continued that the technical process took over the content and people also changed the content to suit the technical process. After his retirement announcement, Yasiin Bey announced in 2018 that he would be making another Black Star studio album, his final album, which will be released later that year.
Who was Yasiin Bey married to?
Yasiin Bey got married to Maria Yepes in 1996. The couple had two daughters together named Jauhara Smith and Chandani Smith. They divorced in 2006 and shortly after the divorce he married Alana Wyatt, but they separated after two years. He also had four other children.