According to the NME, Mos Def is one of the 20 most influential artists of all time, ahead of Beck, the Velvet Underground and Joy Division. Not bad for someone whose debut solo album came out in 1999. It's too early to measure his impact, but he is the rapper most admired by rock musicians these days - a boho b-boy who satisfies the demand for thoughtful rhymes and phat beats. During stand-out track Hip Hop, he name-checks the Native Tongues posse (De La Soul, Jungle Brothers), before interpolating the chorus from Bob Marley's Waiting in Vain.
The connection is clear: as far as his supporters are concerned, he has the potential to make the leap from genre representative to community leader. A native Brooklynite raised in the same housing project as Notorious B.I.G., he is hardly about to abdicate responsibility should it come; in fact, in his mind, he's already got it. "My people," is how he addresses his audience throughout the combative Know That, in a plaintive tenor worthy of the reggae superstar.
This feels like a classic old-school hip-hop show: plenty of lyrical skills over rudimentary scratches from the DJ hidden at the back of the stage. Flanked on both sides by a pair of minders, Mos Def plays the people's champion, encouraging a party atmosphere and sustaining the excitement even when poor sound quality and a lack of visual thrills threaten to spoil the fun.
Musically, the gig lacks the variety of the brilliant Black on Both Sides album, and the acoustics mean you have to strain to divine the nuances in style, the diversions into dancehall territory and the sheer inclusive nature of his art. Most strikingly, Rock N Roll has a furious thrash-metal coda, anticipating the forthcoming Mos Def Presents Black Jack Johnson "ghetto metal" side project.
"I am hip-hop/I am rock 'n' roll," he raps at one point, either a confirmation that all music is of black origin or a statement of mutual dependence between white and black culture. For his detractors - and there are some - it amounts to nothing less than a declaration of compromise. Time will tell whether Mos Def's vision remains pure.
