Back in the late ‘90s when hip-hop duo Black Star first surfaced with their only album, Yasiin Bey was still known as Mos Def and fellow Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli wasn’t really known much at all, other than his underground recordings with DJ Hi-Tek. That 1998 debut, Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star (which Hi-Tek produced), was a real game-changer, helping to launch Kweli’s career trajectory so far that he ended up collaborating with hip-hop royalty such as Kanye West and Pharrell Williams, as well as helping to kickstart the careers of others such as Kendrick Lamar and Jay Electronica.

Over the next decade, Kweli and Bey continued to occasionally collaborate on projects like the 2000 anti-police-brutality EP Hip-Hop For Respect, and as Black Star they contributed to the 2001 Duke Ellington tribute Red Hot + Indigo and appeared on both Chappelle’s Show and Dave Chappelle’s Block Party. However, the duo never recorded a second Black Star album, and the last “new” track to surface was on Kweli’s rarities compilation Train of Thought. Until recently, their infrequent live performances averaged one every half dozen years or so, so their current tour, which brings them to Observatory North Park, will be a rare chance to see the influential politically inclined rappers and catch up with whatever causes or crusades they’re embarking on this time around the touring track.