Mos Def has announced that he will be dropping the name "Mos Def" by the end of this year, and will henceforth be known on record as Yasiin. "I’m retiring the Mos Def name after 2011.

Mos Def has always known that it's kinda dangerous -- literally, physically -- to be an MC, but that awareness never kept him from the task of producing sharp, illuminating hip-hop. For the past ...