More than one year after its release, Black Star have made their long-awaited comeback album, No Fear of Time, available outside of the Luminary podcast network.
Originally released in May 2022 as a Luminary exclusive, No Fear of Time marked the first proper full-length from the duo of Talib Kweli and Yasiin Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def) in 24 years. It was produced entirely by their frequent collaborator Madlib.
Stream it below or purchase a digital copy via Bandcamp.
Black Star teased their sophomore album for years; back in 2019, Kweli even said the record was finished. Last year, the duo launched their podcast The Midnight Miracle with their good friend Dave Chappelle. An episode called “Bugs Bunny Mathematicx” took the role of “audio liner notes to introduce the album,” as the podcast’s hosts discussed No Fear of Time more in-depth.
“About three-four years ago I was visiting Yasiin in Europe and we started to talk about songs to do on an album, so I flew an engineer out just to see what that would be,” Kweli said in a statement. “Once I realized this conversation is starting to organically become a creative conversation, I started making sure to have the engineer around at all times. There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and he’s like ‘Play that Madlib tape again.’ I’m playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that’s how we did the first song.”
Kweli continued: “This is very similar to how we did the first album. But the first album, there were no mobile studios. This entire album, we have not set foot in one recording studio. It’s all been done in hotel rooms and backstage at Dave Chappelle shows.”
“What you will continue to get out of us is a sincere expression,” Bey added. “It’s who we really are, what we’re really responding to, and what’s really important to us.”
Way back in 2011, Black Star dropped the single “Fix Up”, originally intended for an Aretha Franklin-inspired mixtape the duo ended up scrapping. They later also shared “You Already Know” from the project.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated on June 29th, 2023 with the Bandcamp stream.
No Fear of Time Artwork:
No Fear of Time Tracklist:
01. o.G.
02. So be it
03. Sweetheart. Sweethard. Sweetodd.
04. My favorite band
04. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing
05. Yonders
06. My favorite band
07. Supreme alchemy
08. Freequency w Black Thought
09. No fear of time w Yummy Bingham
