While wandering aimlessly through the streets of several Brooklyn neighborhoods last week, I was struck with thoughts of Mos Def, the native son of New York City’s largest borough.

A multidimensional artist, this half of the innovative duo Black Star has been touted as hip-hop’s newest savior: He is an educated, non-threatening rapper that stretches hip-hop’s often-unforgiving boundaries in an attempt to find a new sound. But while he is the favorite of backpackers, hipster college students and the like, Mos Def finally made the jump to be recognized by the classiest of all media bastions: The New York Times.

In the Sunday magazine of the source that gives us “All the News That is Fit to Print,” Mos was honored as a new wave of the rapper/actor, the latest breed of entertainers according to these cultural know-it-alls. But what does this mean? Has he reached a pinnacle in his career?

My motive in this, however, is to question what the eventual outcome of his career will be. Just recently I was posed with the question of what happened with Q-Tip. Much like the Mighty Mos is seen now, Q-Tip was heralded for years as an underground hero bringing light to the shallow and unsophisticated world of “mainstream” hip hop. Then he went “pop” and the St. Vinny’s crowd abandoned him for greener, more “underground” pastures to latch onto.

Now that Mos Def has been identified in the Times as a veritable force in popular culture, does that mean you are going to abandon him too?

Before the decision is made as to whether he is hip-hop’s newest savior or simply an artist that “sold out,” check the facts. Years before his first single, “Body Rock,” hit the stores, Mos was appearing in Fresh Jive and Triple 5 Soul ads in the David Mays Marketing Machine, affectionately know as The Source, as well as in American Express ads. In addition, he was on the short-lived “The Cosby Mysteries” television show and, later in his career, played a gangster in the Spike Lee feature “Bamboozled.”

Now, all of this coupled with his growing popularity could send him into the murky waters Q-Tip has been swimming in since the release of Amplified. What is going to happen when the all-knowing, arrogant college crowd that raids second-hand clothing stores for t-shirts decides that Mos “sold out?” Hell, he already has, by your definition. He appeared on a remix with two-step king Craig David.

So before Mos Def gets vilified for being a capitalist or doing anything that remotely borders on R&B music, remember what he has done in the past, remember that he did exist before Black on Both Sides debuted and remember how much you jocked Q-Tip in 1994.
Mos Def has created a significantly large and impressive body of work and has the potential to go even further. However, he might have a few songs on his next project that border on “pop.” And did I mention that he dated a member of Destiny’s Child? That is much worse than Q-Tip dating Angie Martinez. So with all of this combined, does this mean you are going to leave Mos now too?