The Mos Def show was always going to be a gamble.
The Mos Def show was always going to be a gamble.
Thankfully, Yasiin Bey’s return paid off. Big time.
When Yasiin Bey, the rapper otherwise known as Mos Def, shuffled onto the Powerstation stage to a full house in Auckland last night, it felt like everyone’s worst fears were being realised.
Pairing a thatched yellow dress with a hoodie pulled tight over his head and a flak jacket adorned with the word, “Press”, Bey sprinkled flower petals around the stage, spray-painted something unintelligible onto a white cloth, then unleashed a series of high-pitched bird whistles into a microphone that didn’t appear to be switched on.
On the screen behind him, black-and-white visuals of ghouls riding goats played in slow motion.
It felt almost certain that this was going to be one of those shows.
That’s because Bey arrived with a troubled New Zealand tour history, one that includes a wayward performance opening for DJ Shadow at the then-functioning St James in 2006, followed by a rambling 2011 Powerstation performance that included a lengthy yelling match with a heckler.
His current tour has a theme: it involves Bey performing songs from the late UK rapper MF Doom, who passed in 2020 and who was last night described as “the greatest lyricist of all time”. (It’s worth noting that Doom has his own controversial touring history here.)
But Bey was also coming on the back of a series of pretty poor live reviews, with fans complaining the 50-year-old is showing up late, playing few Doom songs, peppering his set with “incoherent ramblings”, then taking off early.
For those there waiting 20 minutes past the scheduled start time for Bey to show, like the guy behind me who yelled, “Let’s go! Let’s fucking gooooo!” over and over again, we’d spent more than $100 on a gamble, one with odds that felt worse than 50-50.
So, once Bey lost his bird whistle, it was less of a surprise and more of a downright miracle that the man known for delivering seminal hip-hop albums Black Star and Black on Both Sides was able to put the past behind him and deliver on his veteran status.
Last night, Bey didn’t just show up. He took flight. And it was a thrilling thing to behold.
Largely, it was thanks to a setlist peppered with some of Doom’s most celebrated work, much of which was cherry-picked from his celebrated 2004 Madvillain collaboration with the producer Madlib, Madvillainy.
‘Accordian’, ‘Rainbows’, ‘Curls’ and ‘All Caps’ were delivered like the soul-laced, jazz-flecked, head-snapping classics they are, a sound being aped by a new wave of minimalist rappers, those like Larry June, Your Old Droog and Tha God Fahim.
Yes, there were occasional random asides, spiritual ramblings that didn’t quite make sense, songs stopped for no reason other than Bey felt like it, and impromptu stage demands.
At one point, Bey asked for the house lights to be turned off, then rapped a song requesting they be turned back on; at another, he asked for a roll of gaffer tape so he could DIY his spray-painted sign.
Mostly, though, it was a night for the old school hip-hop heads, the ones wearing the oversized jackets and snapback caps, those who could repeat every word of songs like ‘Meatgrinder’ and ‘Umi Says’ back at Bey, like the very tall guy who turned to me after every song and gave a simple nod of his head, like we were now in a secret society, experiencing something special together.
At the end, as Bey bird-whistled his way off stage, my new friend grabbed my shoulders and declared, “That was doooope”. He spoke those words like a true survivor, as someone who’s probably endured Bey’s other performances here too.
For those that had, it made last night’s performance even more special. Ecstatic, even.
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