There are far more prolific artists on the hip-hop scene than Mos Def, but not many in his league when it comes to diversification and political outspokenness. Musically, he sealed the deal with his first two albums — 1998’s Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star and the following year’s Black on Both Sides — which are arguably two of the most highly regarded records in rap history. But by 2004’s The New Danger, Mos Def (born Dante Terrell Smith in Brooklyn) proved he had no intention to be wholly defined as a rapper. On top of The New Danger’s genre-blending aesthetic (the album featured as much soul, blues and rock as hip-hop), by that point in his career, Mos Def was starting to seem more like a critically lauded actor who occasionally dabbled in music than a musician who acted on the side. His films to date have included Bamboozled, Monster’s Ball, Brown Sugar, The Italian Job, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Be Kind Rewind and Cadillac Records (in which he played Chuck Berry). Fortunately for fans of smart, socially aware hip-hop, though, there’s more than enough Mos Def to go around for both film and music. In addition to noteworthy collaborations with Kanye West (“Drunk and Hot Girls”) and the Roots (this year’s “Life in Marvelous Times”), he released True Magic in 2006 and Mos Definite in 2007, and returns full force this summer with the much anticipated The Ecstatic.