Black Star is a great album for many reasons, but to me, they're all personal and unique to myself. I think the "best" music is the music that moves you. Blackstar reminds me of growing up, stirring up memories of walking around in the city with my dad. Most albums simply can't do that for you nowadays. Mos Def's flow is tight, Kweli's lyrics are deep, Hi-Tek is well, Hi-Tek. Definition, RE:Definition are obviously the big songs on this album. I love this album to death, and it's one of the few CD's I've played so much that the disc shattered in my cd player.

Ive been checking out lots of different hiphop/rap styles lately, and after previewing then buying this album, I have to say it's one of my favorites. The songs all are unique and I can listen to this so many times without getting bored of it! Mos(t) Def(inately) recommend this!

this is another classic album that everyone should have in their collection. the lyrics and beats are off the chain.

If the RZA had not come up with his new theories on the postmodern than this would be unquestionably the best hip hop album of all time. Don't get me wrong - it may be the best ever. But it also might not be. Feel me?
I have cried listening to "Respiration" and "Thieves in the Night." If there has ever been a greater expression of the urban experience, well... I must have missed it. And I haven't missed much in hip hop. Trust me, if you don't own this album, you are missing out on something special. This is not just one of the greatest albums to emerge from hip hop's (semi) underground. This isn't just one of the greatest albums in hip hop history. This is one of the greatest albums to be produced - by any artist in any genre - in the past thirty years. This is, to our culture, what Foucault was to the original wave of postmodern thinking... in other words, the expression of our selves in this evolving musical landscape would not be complete without this group or these words or the ideas that are expressed.
If all you see it crime in the city when you listen to hip hop, you need to breath this in and let your narrative grow to help explain this existence that we are all participating in.

Using the term "authentic" can be dangerous in describing music, but for many, Mos Def and Talib Kweli embody the term.

Prophetic Hip Hop was born in Brooklyn, NY. In this seminal album, Def and Kweli push hip hop into a new domain: the very real expression of urban space found in Wu Tang Clan, and the consciousness of Public Enemy, combined with a skill for narration and ease with poetry produce an album that marks a paradigm shift in hip hop.

Both Def and Kweli are artists in the truest sense of the word. They look not to integrate into the corporate establishment for affirmation, but to feed the soul.