Flash, J Dilla, and Madlib's brother Oh No - and they're all up to the task. In Mos Def's case, he's got six - Madlib, Preservation, Chad Hugo, Mr. The recipe for comeback success in rap often involves a good producer.
"Sometimes it's too hard to sit still/ things are so passionate, times are so real/ sometimes I try to chill mellow down blowin smoke/ smile on my face but it's really no joke/ you feel it in the streets the people breathe without hope," he raps over classic film scores on the outstanding "Auditorium." What follows is roughly 45 minutes of Middle Eastern instruments, electro-tinged hip hop, antique Madlib samples and Mos Def's ruminating, anti-gangsta presence. "Ecstatic, ecstatic, ecstatic," he chants moments later. It would seem there is more work to be done. If you think Mos Def is satisfied with having the first black president in office, look no further than the album-opening Malcolm X monologue on the need for extremism. See Common's goofy Universal Mind Control if you want to see how happiness can sometimes dull a once sharp wit.
These are good times for left-leaning political pariahs with street cred, although Mos Def doesn't let the good times hamper his skill for bucking the system. Our loss, but the good news is he's back in the studio and trying a little harder, at least for now. It wasn't long before Hollywood stole Mos Def away. His collaboration with Talib Kweli and soulful solo turn Black On Both Sides made the Brooklyn-born MC a breath of fresh air for hip hop fans exhausted by lyrical beef and gunplay. Mos Def was just the latest hip hop savior with a smooth flow, social awareness and penchant for experimentation. This is why I listen to LPs multiple times before I dare to make some form of a critical assessment.Īside from his award-winning Hollywood output, a stellar guest turn here and there (I'm looking at "Two Words" from Kanye West's debut) and a pair of mish mash albums, the actor/rapper (we've got a slashie here) has been quiet in recent years.įlash back to 1999. Suffice to say, Mos Def's latest is somewhere around an 8 for me today. Two days ago, I started with a rating hovering somewhere around a 6.īut each time I queued the record up, what before seemed like a jumbled mess of foreign instruments, breakbeats and tone-deaf choruses now sounded like a pitch-perfect love letter to planet Earth. Still in all, it's worth checking out for anyone who thought Mos let movies and the Hollywood scene get to him.A funny thing happened on the way to reviewing Mos Def's comeback The Ecstatic. Although this is a great album, it's also pretty short being that quite a bit of songs are around the two minute range. Mos even tries his hand at performing an entire song in Spanish on "No Hay Nada Mas" and closes the album with "Casa Bey" which is also the lead off single. The long-absent Slick Rick steals the show with his cameo on the album's best song "Auditorium".
The Neptunes, who previously produced "Murder Of A Teenage Life" on 2006's "True Magic" return for the foot-stomper "Twilite Speedball". Dilla produced "History", he is joined by fellow Black Star member Talib Kweli giving way to a possible Black Star reunion. In fact, on the song "Roses", Georgia Anne Muldrow does most of the singing. There are no instrumental songs, no rock songs and he barely even sings. Unlike most of his albums in the past that reflected his eclecticism, this album is a straight-up hip hop record with the production being handled primarily by Preservation, Madlib and Madlib's younger brother Oh No. This album is also his first to not carry a Parental Advisory sticker, as there is no profane language to be found anywhere. "The Ecstatic" is his first effort on the indie label Downtown Records, which is also home to Gnarls Barkley and Santigold. After a three year hiatus, Mos Def released his new album in 2009.
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