An analysis of the themes explored in Mos Def's Black on Both Sides By Liam Allen On 30th May 2018 Hip-hop artist Mos Def’s debut solo album Black on Both Sides turned eighteen at the end of last year. So much has happened in world politics during the album’s lifetime, but it would certainly be disappointed to see at age eighteen that so few of the issues it raised in its birth have come even slightly closer to being resolved. Released on 12 October 1999, Black on Both Sides is an example of so-called “socially-conscious” hip-hop, treating in its lyrics all kinds of issues, from the social to the political to the musical. On its release, Mos Def received many plaudits from critics for his mould-breaking treatment of these various issues. When was the last time you heard an MC drop a line like, "Mind over matter and soul before flesh"? When was the last time you heard somebody rap about the global economic and environmental consequences of first-world corpor
