Yasiin Bey & Talib Kweli Announce First Black Star Album In Over 20 Years, ‘No Fear of Time’

It’s official: Black Star is back.

For decades, the duo of Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def) and Talib Kweli have told fans that the long-in-the-works follow-up to their sole 1998 album — produced in its entirety by Madlib — will eventually see the light of day. To put things into context: legendary recluse Jay Electronica released two albums — A Written Testimony and Act II: The Patents Of Nobility — before Black Star did.

Well, fans won’t have to wait for much longer, as Bey and Kweli revealed that the sophomore Black Star album, dubbed No Fear of Time, is set to arrive on May 3!

Good news, right? Well, you know what they say about the bad that comes with with the good…

The album will, for the time being/foreseeable future, be released as a Luminary exclusive (Lunminary, of course, being the home of both the duo’s The Midnight Miracle podcast with Dave Chappelle and Kweli’s solo podcast People’s Party).

“There was one day we were just in a hotel listening to Madlib beats, and [Yasiin Bey was] like ‘Play that Madlib tape again,’” Kweli said about the project’s initial creation. “I’m playing the beats and he starts doing rhymes to the beats. And that’s how we did the first song.”

“With No Fear of Time, Black Star has crafted an important record and a different kind of record release, partnering with Luminary— a cultural label that is becoming home for the world’s most thoughtful artists,” Luminary CEO Rishi Malhotra added.

A preview of the album can be heard below.