In the near-decade since his last album, The Ecstatic, the artist formerly known as Mos Def has proved a vaporous figure, scheduling albums that never arrive, relocating to (and then being expelled from) South Africa and, in 2016, announcing his imminent retirement from showbiz. His debut album, 1999’s Black on Both Sides, announced a saviour of hip-hop but, following label hassles and other maladies, Yasiin Bey chose a slow fade.
Tonight’s show does little to clarify the questions that have surrounded the MC in recent years. Is he still retiring? He doesn’t say. That long-awaited second Black Star album he recently announced, to the bemusement of bandmate Talib Kweli? It goes unmentioned. Unconcerned with typical promotional duties – indeed, without anything to promote – Bey prefers instead to goof around with jazz maverick Robert Glasper’s trio, to live in the moment. “Just be here for this,” he tells the audience, requesting they switch off their phones, before performing a cover of Hotline Bling that locates a haunted loneliness beyond the Drake original.
Spontaneity suits Bey. He revisits a handful of his old songs, riffs with the band on A Love Supreme, and indulges in some unexpected covers, including a deliciously murky reading of Madvillain’s Meat Grinder. Glasper gets Monk-ish on the keys as his rhythm section (bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Chris Dave) send the beat skittering, playing jazz the way hip-hop has always heard it: a lucid stream of licks, loops, breaks and ambience which is never less than gripping.
Even though the Troxy is bursting at its art deco seams, tonight feels like eavesdropping on an intimate, informal after-hours jam session, and the low-stakes vibe sees Bey thrive. Surprise guest Laura Mvula slips on stage for a moving, downtempo glide through Mos Def anthem Umi Says, Glasper and band finding glory within its melancholic funk. A climactic cover of De La Soul’s ever-resonant Stakes Is High, meanwhile, closes the night on a triumphant, heavy note, suggesting that if this really is Bey’s swansong, it will be a great loss indeed.
