Mos Def’s artistic career began in the late 80s as a television actor, a profession he began straight out of high school. By the mid 90s, Mos Def turned to rap music as his new profession, frustrated by how little acting paid relative to rapping. Based in Brooklyn, he began affiliating himself with the local hip-hop scene, appearing on tracks by such esteemed groups as De La Soul and Da Bush Babees. Following these guest appearances and some singles for Royalty (most notably “Universal Magnetic), Mos Def began recording for the upstart Rawkus label. His first full-length album, Black Star, collaboration with Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek, rocked the hip-hop community and became one of the most discussed rap albums of its time. His solo debut, Black on Both Sides (1999), inspired further attention and praise. Mos Def was part of the Native Tongue collective, along with groups such as De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest, which had set the precedent for socially conscious, thoughtful rap music that celebrated Afro-centricity rather than gangsta culture. Early in the new millennium, Mos Def established himself as a strong actor through roles in films such as Monster’s Ball, Bamboozled, Brown Sugar, and The Woodsman; he even spent some time on Broadway in the Pulitzer-prize winning Topdog/Underdog. Simultaneously, he worked on the Black Jack Johnson project with several iconic black musicians. This project aimed to reclaim rock music from such artists as Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst, who Mos Def openly despised. In October 2004, he finally delivered a second solo album, The New Danger, which involved Black Jack Johnson on a few tracks. Two years later, after a few more acting roles -- including the Golden Globe-winning Lackawanna Blues and the Emmy-winning Something the Lord Made, both of which were made-for-television movies -- Mos Def released his third solo album, True Magic (2006), its single, "Undeniable," earned him a Grammy nomination for Best Rap Solo Performance.