Mos Def will
star along side Isaiah Washington and Wood Harris in the feature, "From
The Outside Looking In." According to Billboard, the movie is a coming
of age story of a young man who chronicles the past twenty years of his life
growing up with his four best friends in Brooklyn, New York. The movie starts
production in August.
Mos has put his rap career on hold due to contractual
disputes with Rawkus/MCA. "All I can say is slavery is over and has been
for a long time," he recently said. That hasn’t stopped him from pursuing
acting, in a serious way. Topdog/Underdog in which he stars, was nominated for
two Tony’s and Mos recently joined the cast of "The Italian Job,"
which is a remake of the 1969 movie of the same name. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg
as the head of a group of robbers who are attempting to steal a safe filled
with gold. Mos Def plays a character named "Half Ear," named so because
he wears a hearing aid.
Mos recently joined the "Not In Our Name"
anti-war campaign. He joins such people as Ossie Davis, Ed Asner, Russell Banks,
Martin Luther King III and Rabbi Michael Lerner, in signing a statement criticizing
the United States policies since September 11th. The artists, like millions
of people around the country feel the administration is promoting their own
agenda in the name of a "war on terror."
"We believe that peoples and nations have
the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great
powers," the group said in a statement. "We believe that all persons
detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have the same
rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must
be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always
contested and must be fought for. "
"In our name, the Bush administration, with
near unanimity from Congress, not only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to
itself and its allies the right to rain down military force anywhere and anytime.
The brutal repercussions have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where
Israeli tanks and bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction.
The government now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq — a country
which has no connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world will
this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos, assassins,
and bombs wherever it wants?"