Saturday Night: Black Star and Zion I at the Fox Theater

@The Fox Theater, Oakland 

Better than: A decade's worth of (mostly) socially indifferent mainstream hip-hop. 

Nearly twelve years after the release of their only full-length collaboration -- 1998's Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star -- the now-name-brands Mos Def and Talib Kweli reminded a reverent crowd at Oakland's Fox Theater on Saturday that none of the sizzle has dissipated from the album's pointed, positive verse. Black Star is remembered as a success of social criticism and artistry in a crowded field of thumping would-be preachers, and Saturday's show raised the volume on its strengths: Both of the charismatic MCs rapped in a vivid, English-major vocabulary, using their ear for off-kilter meters and internal rhyme. And the themes of Black Star -- the troubles of violence and disillusionment in black American culture, as well its underappreciated beauties -- felt relevant, the group's willingness to wrestle with them refreshing, on a Saturday night in a downtown landscape of still-boarded-up windows and eerie posters bearing the smiling face of Oscar Grant.

The night was foremost a party. Some of the audience arrived in dapper sport coats and shimmering evening dresses; others wore the usual baggy jeans, T-shirts, and ball caps. DJ Mr. E set off one hip-hop classic after another between sets, sending the room into the occasional swoon even before any MCs appeared.

Joseph Schell

Mos Def

​After a lengthy buildup, Mos Def's lean figure finally strode onstage in dress slacks, mutton-chop sideburns, and a head cap. Kweli bounded out with sunglasses and a straw hat. Both gushed gratitude throughout the night. "I don't take that for granted," Mos Def said, thanking the crowd about a dozen times for showing up. Kweli applauded our decision to come even though "tickets was fucking expensive" ($41.50 before fees). "I'm glad you all got your priorities," he said.

Joseph Schell

Talib Kweli

​Backed by a trio of DJs, the duo mixed many songs from their respective solo careers in with highlights from the Black Star album. Aside from a few solo gems -- Kweli's urgent self-improvement anthem "Get By" among them -- the Black Star songs won the most hand-waving and head-nodding from the audience. And for the most part, both MCs matched onstage the feats of synchronization and the labyrinthine, blazing rhymes for which their album is famous. The first Black Star track arrived second in the set, and sent the audience into a fever. "Astronomy (8th Light)" rides the repetition of the words "black" and "star" into a reassessment of values. "What is the black star?/ Is it the cat with the black shades, the black car?/ Is it shining from very far to where you are?/ It is commonplace and different/ Intimate and distant/ Fresher than an infant," Mos Def rhymed, almost impeccably.