(We are giving a pair of tickets away to Mos Def at the Roseland. Read below for details.)
(Update from Roseland: Due to traveling issues, the MOS DEF show scheduled for May 22, 2009 will be rescheduled. All tickets purchased for this show will be honored at the new date, Friday August 28, 2009. Support Talent to be announced.)
Posted by Julian Chadwick
“I ain't tryin to diss but I don't be tryin to f*** with Limp Bizkit. When I get down in my zone, I be rockin Bad Brains and Fishbone. I ain't tryin to slow your groove, but that ain't the way I'm tryin to move. I don't turn on Korn to get it on; I be playin Jimi Hendrix 'til the dawn” (lyrics from “Rock N Roll”)
Mos Def is much more than a hip hop artist. He garners Grammy, Emmy 
& Golden Globe nominations. He's considered a voice of truth & consciousnesses for many young people around this country (even if he was a bit crazy on Bill Maher). It has been over three years since Mos Def has released a new album and ten years since the ground-breaking debut, Black On Both Sides.
This is why you should be at this show: His new album, The Ecstatic, is scheduled for release in June and he's playing new tracks from it on this tour. People who've seen him perform are saying it is some of the best music Mos has ever produced. You can download one of the tracks, Casa Bey here and decide for yourself.
With his ever growing acting career, who knows how long it will be before he releases another album and comes back to the PDX? I wouldn't miss this opportunity if I were you. We'll even give you a chance to go for free…
Mos Def with The Knux, Lilla D'Mone, DJ Gen. Erik & DJ Wels
FRIDAY, MAY 22, 2009 ~ROSELAND THEATER~
Portland, Oregon; 8:00pm, All Ages
Tickets available through all TicketsWest Locations-Safeway, Music Millennium
To charge by phone please call 503.224.8499 or order online at www.ticketswest.com
To win a pair free tickets: In order to win a pair of free tickets, comment on this post with your favorite Mos Def lyrics. I put some of mine above. Do not comment twice. I will delete the second one definitely and maybe both out of spite. I will draw a winner randomly on Friday morning & email you. If you haven't received an email from us by noon, you didn't win.
The show is the same day and the last one sold out. Therefore,in order to be safe of getting a ticket, you might want to buy your tickets now and put them on craisgslist or sell at the door if you win…just sayin…bet hedging
Also, we give many, many tickets away to our Portland facebook group every Thursday. We've given tickets for this Mos, Questlove, and hundreds of others so far this year. Join our group and win if you like free stuff.
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“I start to think, and then I sink
Into the paper, like I was ink.”
Like this one!
Acting like a man but a chick frontin’ in disguise. Open on some thicker thighs, smokin’ on a blunt of lies tradin’ in a badge for a sash sayin’ sucker hi lookin’ in at her son now, probably make a mother cry. Should have listened to that song tellin’ you to “Walk on by”. But you didn’t know your washed up like a cup of tide. Let me know I got the heat when you think its time to dry.
â€ÂÂYou want to know how to rhyme, then learn how to add. It’s mathematicsâ€ÂÂ
seance i’m a math major does that mean i should pic up a Mic?
“Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop
Hip-Hop is going where we going
so the next time you ask yourself where Hip-Hop is goin,
ask yourself – where’m I goin? How’m I doin?
To get a clear idea.”
“Fear not of men because men must die.”
Mos Def is the man!
A lot of things have changed
A lot of things have not, mainly us
-Fear not of man
and I’d love to see Mos up close
“Said, Kenny G ain’t got no SOULLLL
John Coltrane is rock and roll
You may dig on the Rolling Stones
but they could never ever rock like Nina Simone”
If you can namecheck Nina Simone, you’re alright in my book.
“Numbers is hardly real and they never have feelings
but you push too hard, even numbers got limits
Why did one straw break the camel’s back? Here’s the secret:
the million other straws underneath it – it’s all mathematics”
- Mathematics
“Olympic sponsor of the black glock
Gold medalist in the back shot
From the sovereign state of the have-nots
Where farmers have trouble with cash crops
Its all city like phase two
Hip hop will simply amaze you
Craze you, pay you
Do whatever you say do
But black, it cant save you”
Black On Both Sides (Love)
When I’m writing I’m trapped in between the line
I escape when I finish the rhyme
Two of the people above don’t realize that Mos copped those lyrics from Rakim!
But he’s still the best…
You can laugh and criticize Michael Jackson if you wanna
Woody Allen, molested and married his step-daughter
Same press kickin dirt on Michael’s name
Show Woody and Soon-Yi at the playoff game,
holdin hands
Sit back and just bug, think about that
Would he get that type of dap if his name was Woody Black?
LIFE IS REAL
So real, too real, news real–edited
The close up block out the rest of it
True evident, false measurement
Crunk superstar, thug president
twitter @heezy
Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape
Now let it fall… (Hungh!!)
My restlessness is my nemesis
It’s hard to really chill and sit still
Committed to page, I write rhymes
Sometimes won’t finish for days
Scrutinize my literature, from the large to the miniature
I mathematically add-minister
Subtract the wack
Zero tolerance to raise the tax
It don’t matter how your gates is latched
You ain’t safe from the danger jack
Made a way before they made the map
Or a GPS this is D-E-F, leader
hahaa mos def steps correct, beleee dis
“ms. fat booty”:
Burnin candles,
all my other plans got canceled
Man I smashed it like an Idaho potato
She call my at my J.O., ‘sayin ‘come now, I can’t say no’
i said manhattan keep on makin’ it/brooklyn keep on takin’ it…
and 2 tix?
man passes by,
in an aimless stroll,
barefoot in the street,
as the night grows cold,
in reply to our sorrow,
he begins to dance,
he claps his hands,
share an awkward glance,
If you in a Benzito or your mother’s Buick Regal
I get up like Chino shoutin power to the people!!
This is mine and my fiance’s song…would love to see Mos Def live!!!!
“Oh darling, oh girl you know I love you”
“Oh darling, you know I know I love you, oh baby”
“If you never see me again, I need you to be sure”
“From this moment right now till for ever more”
Next week how hit me up, I saw Sharice at the Kitty club with some banging ass Asian playin lay it down lick me up…What?
ms fat booty
Im permanent like tattoos and birth marks, third degree burn marks, drivin on tracks like dale earnhardt
Im’ma put down like a dirty so and so
Freak daddy came here to work the mojo – oh
Because the – high is high and the low is low
And that goes for the sinner man to holy folks
Put your shit in the sky like I know you – oh
“I am just a simple man, tryin to the best I can with what it is I have.”
I said, Elvis Presley ain’t got no soul (huh)
Chuck Berry is rock and roll (damn right)
You may dig on the Rolling Stones
But they ain’t come up with that style on they own (uh-uh)
“The one and all the me and the we,
The I and I the thou and the thee”
“I got love, l-o-v-e and I be…”
“Respiration,” From Blackstar album, with Talib Kweli and Common:
So much on my mind that I cant recline
Blastin holes in the night til she bled sunshine
Breathe in, inhale vapors from bright stars that shine
Breathe out, weed smoke retrace the skyline
Heard the bass ride out like an ancient mating call
I cant take it yall, I can feel the city breathin
Chest heavin, against the flesh of the evening
Sigh before we die like the last train leaving
“I got love, l-o-v-e and I be…†Back atcha Joshua ;)
“I seen her on the ave, spotted her more than once/Ass so fat that you could see it from the front/She spot me like paparazzi/
Shot me a glance in that catwoman stance with the fat booty pants/Hot damn!”
If I win these tickets I’m hoping I’ll be able to find me my very own Ms. Fat Booty in a catwoman stance!
“…ass so fat you could see it from the front”
Hook from “Brown Sugar (Fine)”
Sidenote: Ooo, that was a good movie, if I don’t win the tickets maybe I’ll rent the movie just to hear the song. LOL!
“You got to (give it to me)
You need to (give it to me) (uh huh)
You better (give it to me)
(give it to me) ha ha, brown sugar
Leave the ground shook up (uh)
Got the world sweatin like fiends without cook up
Come on, you know you really wanna (give it to me)
You better (give it to me)
You got to (give it to me)
(give it to me) brown sugar, ha
Lick your lips to it
Work your hips to it (ha)
And steady rockin like this to it”
“Mr. President (Bush) he’s about that cash
He got policy for handling the niggas and trash
And if you poor you black
I laugh and laugh they won’t give when you ask
You’re better off on crack, dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq
It’s as simple as that, no opinion my man it’s mathematical fact”
From Dollar Days – Couldn’t write it better myself
“I’m reachin’ the height that you said cannot be,
I’m bringin’ the light but you said we can’t see.”
word.
“She touched on my eyelids, the room fell silent
She walked away smilin singing Gregory Issacs
Like ‘if I don’t, if I don’t, if I don’t’
Showin me that tan line and that tattoo
Playin Sade, ‘Sweetest Taboo’
Burnin candles, all my other plans got canceled
Man I smash’d it like an Idaho potato”
“Crunk superstar, thug president
Tricks allegiance, M-def payment ship”
Life is Real
Yo, in she came with the same type game
The type of girl givin out the fake cell phone and name
Big fame.
my fav.
Beef is not what Jay said to Nas
Beef is when workin’ niggas can’t find jobs
So they tryna find niggas to rob
Tryna find bigger guns so they can finish the job
Beef is when the crack kids can’t find moms
Cause they end up inna PINE box or locked behind bars
Beef ain’t the Summer Jam for Hot 97
Beef is the cocaine and AIDS epidemic
Beef don’t come with a radio edit
Beef is when the judge is callin’ you “defendant”
Beef, it comes with a long jail sentence
Handed down to you in a few short minutes
Beef is when your girl come through for a visit
Talkin’ bout “I’m pregnant by some other nigga”
Beef is high blood pressure and bad credit
Need a loan for your home and you’re too broke to get it
And all your little kids is doin is gettin’ bigger
You tryin not to raise ‘em around these wild niggas
Beef is when a gold digger got ya seat and a
A manicured hand out like “pay me nigga”
Or I’m tellin’ your wife
Or startin’ up some foul rumor that’ll ruin your life
Beef is when a gangster ain’t doin it right
Another gangster then decided what to do with his life
Beef is not what these famous niggas do on the mic
Beef is what George Bush would do in a fight
Yeah, beef is not what Ja said to 50
Beef is more than Irv not bein here with me
When a soldier ends his life with his own gun
Beef is tryin’ to figure out what to tell his son
Beef is oil prices and geopolitics
Beef is Iraq, the West Bank, and Gaza Strip
Some beef is big and some beef is small
But what y’all call beef is not beef at all
Beef is real life happenin’ everyday
And it’s realer than them songs that you get at Kay Slay
This has been a Black Star PSA
From Mos Def, Pretty Flocko, black Dante
And the Black Star embassy, B to the K
Before Mr. Taylor taught the world to play
Before fiberglass
Before parquet
Before the word “Doctor” was spelled with a “J”
And ballrooms were ballcourts where the Renaissance played
Before the hype and before the dunk
After the rhythm but before the funk
Before the money and before the fame
Before new school and old school
Before school had a name
Damn hook me up! Mos Def is the illest, I SO want to go to this show!!