Mos Def Must Pay

Fri., Feb. 17, 2006 2:45 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Mos Def's new danger? Falling behind on child support.

A New York judge on Thursday ordered the rapper-actor to make good on $10,000-a-month payments to his estranged wife, Maria Yepes-Smith, to care for the ex-couple's seven- and eight-year-old daughters, the New York Post reports.

Mos, whose real name is Dante Smith, was supposed to start sending the checks on Jan. 1 as part of his divorce settlement from Yepes-Smith, but he has had some cash-flow problems, according to his lawyer. So far, the two checks he has sent so far have fallen short by about $2,000.

With Mos Def sitting in on the hearing, attorney Steven Goldfeder noted the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has three other kids to care for.

"It's the best he can do under the circumstances," the hip-hopster's attorney, Steven Goldfeder, told a Brooklyn court. "He has several children. He's always provided for them."

Goldfeder then lobbied Judge Sarah Krauss to reduce the payments for Yepes-Smith, claming she reneged on a promise to home school the girls.

When Krauss asked the lawyer why the rapper was having trouble meeting the court-mandated amount, Mos Def spoke up.

"I'm the only person who's providing for my children," he interjected, prompting a sharp rebuke from the judge.

"Please tell your client not to talk anymore," said Krauss.

In a separate matter, the judge ordered Goldfeder to file an amended claim to specify grounds for divorce.

Neither Mos Def nor his former missus talked to reporters after the hearing. But her lawyer, Karen Blaustein, questioned exactly what business problems Mos Def could have given his film roles in the pipeline, in particular 16 Blocks, a thriller starring Bruce Willis slated to unspool next month.

"He's always going to have some excuse," Blaustein told E! Online. "He's a movie star, he has a show on HBO [Def Poetry] for years. He absolutely can make these payments."

In regards to request for an amended claim, Blaustein said that Mos Def sought a divorce citing "cruelty," but failed to follow up with allegations supporting it.

Goldfeder didn't immediately respond to calls seeking comment.

Mos Def, who has been nominated for both Tony and Golden Globe Awards for his acting, has two other movies due out this year, Journey to the End of Night, a drama about Brazil's underground sex industry costarring Brendan Fraser and Scott Glenn, and, totally unrelated, The Brazilian Job, a sequel to 2003's box-office hit The Italian Job, starring Mark Walhberg and hitting theaters Dec. 15.

His last album, the Grammy-nominated The New Danger, came out in 2004.