Mos Def and Damon Dash Collaborating On Documentary About Pioneering Black Punk Rockers, Death

The NME has uncovered an interview with Mos Def in the new issue of Filter Magazine, (the one with the excellent Karen O/Spike Jonze cover), where he announces that he’s teaming up with Damon Dash to produce a documentary on punk pioneers Death. The film will be directed by music video helmers Coodie & Chike, whose videos for Kanye West’s “Through The Wire,” and an earlier collaboration with Mos Def on “Ghetto Rock,” show a certain flair for documentary.

Def tells Filter “It’s going to be great. These dudes were pre-Sex Pistols, pre-Bad Brains, pre-all that shit, and nobody knows them. I don’t understand how the whole world could forget them.” The band, formed by brothers David, Bobby and Dannis Hackney in Detroit in 1971, started as an R&B band, but moved towards hard rock after seeing an Alice Cooper show. There’s an excellent New York Times article here which serves as a good primer on the band.

Def, whose latest album The Ecstatic is a major return to form, has often named Death as a big influence in his work, particularly on 2004’s The New Danger, which featured Def’s band Black Jack Johnson, which featured members of other African-American punk bands like Bad Brains and Living Color. As such, it should be interesting to see his take on a long-overlooked band.