By The Hip Hop Writer
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
During the final days of 2011, Mos Def revealed he would be changing his stage name to Yasiin Bey. Coming with the name change came much new music. There was immediate talk of Yasiin Bey and Talib Kweli reunion as Black Star. Overall, 2012 was a great year for hip hop and Brooklyn also saw a renaissance.
Brooklyn’s renaissance was not limited to hip hop music, the culture also received a major boost. Jay-Z purchased part-ownership in the NBA’s Nets back in 2003 and there was always talk of the team relocating to Brooklyn. In 2012, the Barclays Center finally was constructed and the Brooklyn Nets were born.
Yasiin Bey has had choice words for the Barclays Center, which has breathed new life into the Brooklyn area. However, this new life is not something everyone is pleased with, evidenced by Yasiin Bey’s reaction. While he is no fan of Barclays, Yasiin Bey told Vulture this does not impact his feelings about Jay-Z.
Read an excerpt of Yasiin Bey’s interview with Vulture below:
“I have been what some people might call an opponent to the stadium…I was concerned about what the stadium’s presence in the community might do,” he said of the poem. “I saw one thing that was kind of a telling sign. I was on DeKalb Avenue and Flatbush, probably two months ago, and at the intersection I saw these not-quite-so-young men, in standing traffic, trying to sell bootleg Rolling Stones T-shirts. [Laughs] I thought, ‘This is the trickle-down economic effect of Barclays in the neighborhood?’ I didn’t think of it as a positive…people lost their homes, people lost their businesses. Triangle Sports, it took up a whole block, been there a hundred years — they gotta go! That’s the market.”
“I was actually pretty hesitant to have it published, because I didn’t want it to be misconstrued as some sort personal attack on Jay,” he said. “In the world of Hip Hop and certain parts of the media, you take a statement and you turn it into Wrestlemania, you make the Himalayas out of molehills. I wasn’t interested in that. I respect Jay. I have great respect for him…I’m from the town too. I’m from the same neighborhood, the same projects. My grandmothers, my moms, my uncles — my first five years in life were at Marcy Projects. If I can’t have an opinion, who can? So to quote Jay: ‘I’m bigging up my borough. I’m big enough to do it.'”
