Born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn, New York, Smith is better known as Mos Def. The oldest of 12 children, Def starting writing rhymes at an early age and used his talents to work at the human rights organization Amnesty International. Though Def was originally recognized as a rapper, he actually got started in acting. He participated in several off-Broadway plays and Community Theater, as well as earning small rolls in NYPD Blue, The Cosby Mysteries and Spin City. He also hosted HBO's Def Poetry Jam in 2002.

While honing his acting skills in several different dramas, Def also started to work with other young rappers in Washington Square Park in New York. His first musical group was Urban Thermo Dynamics (UTD), which consisted of Def and his brother and sister. After their single was released, Def joined Afrika Bambaataa's Native Tongues collective, which included A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. After collaborating with several other groups, he released his debut single, "The Universal Magnetic," with the indie hip-hop label Rawkus Records. Working with fellow Washington Square Park rapper Talib Kweli, the duo created the 1998 album Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are...Black Star.

Though he finally had an album, it didn't earn the success Def had hoped for. So his focused on acting. The 2000s saw Def acting in several Hollywood films, including Monster's Ball, Bamboozled, Brown Sugar and The Woodsman. He continued to work on music with the Black Jack Johnson project, which aimed to reclaim rock music, and hoped to see an all-black rock band. During the 2000s he also performed with his group throughout New York, with the release of his sophomore solo album in 2004. Def continued to work as both an actor and a rapper, releasing his third album in 2006 and seeing successful movie roles, like a part in The Italian Job.