Mos Def, photo by Terrence Jennings, Jill Newman Productions

The projection screen at the back of the stage flickered to life with a giant from the District’s past, when it truly was Chocolate City. The clip featured Petey Green, the legendary talk show host, who gave the audience his own inimitable thoughts on the proper way to eat a watermelon. Thus began Amino Alkaline–The Watermelon Syndicate, Mos Def‘s new concert production that teams the MC with a 25-piece band. Potent hip-hop grooves, supplied by some of the country’s finest young jazz and orchestral musicians, coupled with the rapper’s on-point delivery resulted in an impressive performance that showcased a consummate artist in his prime. The Kennedy Center also deserves credit for mounting this event, which drew as diverse an audience as one is likely to see in a formal concert hall setting.

With 1999’s Black on Both Sides being a must for any “serious” music collector, Mos Def has long been a favorite of critics and fans of socially conscious hip-hop. On stage, sporting a simple red T-shirt bearing the production’s logo, and what appeared to be a cap from the Marine dress uniform (later replaced with a black bowler hat), his easy-going demeanor was open and disarming, as though he was inviting the audience into his world. With no shortage of quips, his jovial stage banter provided an effective balance to the more serious tone of the material. How else would anyone pull off a go-go rendition of the Star Spangled Banner with all the lyrics being replaced by two lines, “And the rocket’s red glare/The bombs bursting in air”?