Hebru Brantley Presents: Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey-scored Flyboy In: "Revelations" Animated Short (Downtown Records c. 2009)

Brooklyn veteran emcee Yasiin Bey, aka infrequent actor Dante Smith, recently "released" and 8-track video "collection" of expertly re-rapped MF DOOM covers, but BEYONDOOOM isn't exactly his first foray into Stones Throw-related material; Yasiin Bey's 2009 album, The Ecstatic, his last record released under the Mos Def moniker, was essentially a loosely compiled Stones Throw beat tape. It's littered with cleverly re-purposed production work from the likes of Oh No, Madlib, J Dilla, Georgia Anne Muldrow, and MADVILLAIN: "Several Stones Throw artists and Stones Throw [released] instrumentals are included on Mos Def's new album The Ecstatic, which will be released June [9th]," Stones Throw wrote in a detailed beat-oriented 2009 mini-press release. "Revelations," lifted from MADVILLAINY 2: The Madlib Remix album has very recently been used to score a 2-minute animated short created by Afrofuturism-centric graphic artist Hebru Brantley... assembled nearly six years after its initial Downtown Records release.


"The visual follows the adventures of Brantley's hallmark Flyboy character as he encounters a mortal foe en route to nabbing the girl of his dreams, taking on a very Dr. Robotnik-esque (that's for you Sonic fans out there) type of villain," okayplayer wrote in a charismatic Zo-penned write-up over the weekend. "It's a short one, criminally so, but we think you'll get a kick out of it. And with Black Dante on the score, it's a must-see and hear type of joint," Zo then continued. Yasiin Bey has supposedly been out of the country recording new material since sometime after the release of The Ecstatic; "I played [Kanye] some new material and the whole song played and there was no words... he goes, "let me hear that again," a jovial Bey lamented to Beats By Dre about playing rough cuts of his new music for his G.O.O.D. Music label boss and former "Two Words" and "Drunk and Hot Girls" collaborator. Ahead of his as-yet-untitled new album, Yasiin Bey is rumored to be appearing on an unnamed track within A$AP Rocky's soon forthcoming At.Long.Last.A$AP (ALLA).