The Ecstatic (Downtown)
What’s it like to be ahead of your time? Just ask Mos Def. Since bursting out of Brooklyn in 1996 with standout cameos on De La Soul’s “Stakes is High” (remix) and Da Bush Babees’ “The Love Song,” mighty Mos has redefined hip hop with a blend of deft rhymes, melodic harmonizing and spoken-word poetry that is spirit-lifting, conscious-raising, and indelibly unique. He may be one of the few rappers that actually deserve the “conscious” sobriquet.
The problem is that Mos Def’s considerable ambitions often obscure his talents. His debut, Black on Both Sides (Rawkus, 1999), danced wonderfully between the throwback charm of “Ms. Fat Booty” and the hard-charging punk quotations of “Rock & Roll.” But subsequent albums, like 2003’s rock-influenced The New Danger (Geffen) and 2006’s True Magic (Geffen), found him struggling to synthesize his varying interests into cohesive statements. Still, time softens disappointment. Heard today, The New Danger sounds less a schizophrenic mess of cryptic freestyles and black rock than a courageous, even visionary preview of the future soul movement now led by artists like Sa-Ra Creative Partners, Georgia Anne Muldrow and others.
On his fourth album The Ecstatic, Mos declares himself an MC who flows “greatest like the Greater Lakes,” and revels in the power of his words. “I speak it so clearly sometimes y’all don’t hear me,” he raps in a determined voice on “Auditorium,” just before Slick Rick spins a surreal tale of war-torn Iraq. Mos and Rick’s Q-Tip-and-Phife-like collabo gives way to “Priority,” where Mos calls himself “The gingerbread the slave master can’t catch.” Childhood fables aside, one of Mos’ most endearing traits remains his empathy. Mos observes Arabic women deep in prayer while traveling overseas on “The Embassy,” and raps a tribute en español to the Third World on “No Hay Nada Mas.”
It’s a typically eccentric tour de force from Mos Def. But this time, he recruits producers capable of keeping pace with him. Brothers Madlib and Oh No, French electro producer Mr. Flash of Ed Banger infamy and even the late master, James “J Dilla” Yancey contribute hazy, sample-heavy beats to help focus Mos’ ambitions. Oh No loops an electric guitar solo for “Supermagic” (recycled from his 2007 album Dr. No’s Oxperiment); “Priority” finds newcomer Preservation weaving a dramatic medley of strings and bass drums. Mos Def soaks it all up, reverting to the hungry rhyme-spitter of years past.
As Mos Def unfurls each song, he offers little in the way of memorable hooks or choruses. But it doesn’t seem to matter. From comparing himself to Sugar Ray and Muhammad Ali on “Pretty Dancer,” to dropping adlibs over Muldrow’s vocals on “Roses” like a dancehall chatterer, Mos Def weaves and bobs like a champion boxer working the ring. Turns out the old dog’s still got some fight in him.
Mos Def's "The Ecstatic" is in stores now
The Ecstatic Track Listing1. “Supermagic”
2. “Twilite Speedball”
3. “Auditorium” feat. Slick Rick
4. “Wahid”
5. “Priority”
6. “Quiet Dog”
7. “Life In Marvelous Times
8. “The Embassy”
9. “No Hay Nada Mas”
10. “Pistola”
11. “Pretty Dancer”
12. “Worker’s Comp”
13. “Revelations”
14. “Roses” feat. Georgia Anne Muldrow
15. “History” feat. Talib Kweli
16. “Casa Bey”
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