Could celebrated rapper/actor Mos Def be the artist who finally kicks open the doors of the Guthrie for hip-hop?

Historically, the nation's largest regional theater has hosted rock, folk, R&B and blues acts, from the Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin to Al Green and the Neville Brothers.

But the number of hip-hop acts that have graced the Guthrie's stages can be numbered on one hand. P.O.S. and Brother Ali, two national acts that originated in the Twin Cities, were part of the new theater's opening festivities in 2006. And local MC/poet Dessa did a series of small shows this May at the Big G, deploying flying words over fly beats. Otherwise, hip-hop, which has been steadily building beats and dropping rhymes across the globe for more than three decades, has been scarce at the Guthrie.

"There hasn't been any prohibition against rap or urban acts at the Guthrie," said promoter Sue McLean, who has been presenting shows at the theater since 1985. "Rap acts used to go straight to the clubs. Now that they're more mainstream, big acts are filling up arenas and theaters. It's got to be the right-size room for an artist who's at an 1,100-seat venue in their career."

That would be Mos Def, who appears with his DJ at the Guthrie on Monday night (and Dessa as opening act). He is probably the ideal bridge artist to play the theater.

Born Dante Terrell Smith in New York's Brooklyn borough, he has excelled in music, theater and film.

His art has been impressive in theater and onscreen. Mos Def's Broadway performance with Jeffrey Wright in Suzan-Lori Parks' "Topdog/Underdog" helped the drama win a Pulitzer Prize. The New York Times said Mos Def, "best known as a rap artist, finds both the delightful innocence and the harrowing brutality in the role of a little brother who never grew up."

He won an Obie for his performance in another Parks play and was nominated for an Emmy in "Something the Lord Made," a made-for-cable movie in which he starred with Alan Rickman.

Other Mos Def screen credits include "Bamboozled," "Be Kind Rewind," "Brown Sugar," "The Italian Job" and "Monster's Ball." He also starred in HBO's "Lackawanna Blues" and with Bruce Willis in "16 Blocks."

On the music side, Mos Def became an underground favorite in the hip-hop world in the mid-1990s. "Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star," his legendary debut collaboration with Kweli, is acclaimed by critics and fans alike.

His solo debut, "Black on Both Sides," was released in 1999, a socially conscious album that spoke to issues and themes beyond the bling and jiggy things then occupying many of his peers.

Mos Def's latest release, "The Ecstatic," was nominated for Grammy awards for best rap album and best rap solo performance.

"He is a rare artist who's good at so many different things," said McLean.

Rohan Preston • 612-673-4390