“Embedded” w/ Mos Def
Scene opens w/ mos def welcoming us as we follow him around japan. We, the voyeurs, are invited to watch him do his “thang”! how cool is that?!
“konichiwa b----es!” he says. I am nearly laughin’ my dinner up! He’s so freakin’ cool! (funny how some people would never understand why that’s so funny).
Mos Def on Japanese Fashion
Mos def comes out from back stage, someone hands him a mic and he just starts rappin’. I didn’t even hear the dj start spinnin’ the beat and he’s already begun the show! As he walks to the stage, the crowd starts goin’ wild. He’s got on this funky turquoise leather jacket, studded like someone went crazy & a mardi gras mask. A case of having too much money? Perhaps, but it’s hot!
Cut to mos def walking around the Hara Juku District of Tokyo. It’s known as the Milan of the East. The storefronts are posh. He steps into a couture store and nearly loses his mind. That fashions are FAT and he’s a fashionista. Ok, so this is where he bought that studded turquoise number! I get it. My fave line of his: “if I could lick this jacket, I would!”
Why do I so get this piece? Because I am a product of the neo-punk-funk-rock generation that is plugged in and totally connected. I get the connection between music, work, art and lifestyle—we don’t write our credos like the “Romantics”, “Aesthetics”, “Beatniks” or “Socialists” of generations ago. We play it, rap it, text/twitter/blog it AND wear it. I yeah…I get it!
“We gotta keep up America,” Mos Def says. “I mean, c’mon you know like seriously we getting’ outpaced out this b----. Like, we’re just getting lapped by Japan over and over. We don’t even make good jeans anymore! It’s like ridiculous!”
Mos Def on Japanese Aesthetics
He lauds the Japanese concern? For aesthetics. America does not have a sense of aesthetics anywhere near that of the Japanese, he muses. He digs cultures who honor beauty. I understand his sentiments. I, too, feel uniquely drawn to the Asian sensibility toward perfection—feng shui, balance, exactness and tradition. Honor, Dignity and sacrifice…those are universal, yet visceral modus operandi.
The Japanese can shift from reserve to explosive. When asked why they like Mos Def, the audience comments: “His rhymes are tight”, “he is intellectual, but powerful”. Do they see themselves in those remarks? Hmmm.
Mos Def seems humbled, taken aback by his fame. He says to the camera he could not understand the universal appeal of a Black man from New York who raps about his cultural and social experiences. The fact that the Japanese are moved by his music confounds him. Once again, I see the universal truths that people share when an artist addresses such themes as struggle, love, justice and anger. We all can get down to that!
That’s just a little bit of something I watched. More confessions from an infojunkie to come.
For more on Mos Def, check out “Embedded” on Current TV.
