The vocals on the Premier-esque piano-loop of ‘Worker’s Camp’ might not be the most tuneful, but it still makes for the most stand-alone, euphoric track on an album that largely values mood over individual songs. Mos Def's tendency to sing has irked some, and though far from technically great, his Caribbean-styled patois on ‘Lion’s Of Hip-Hop’ has become iconic. Like M.I.A.’s Kala, no style is off limits, the only place where this strategy fails being the unconvincing Spanish flow of ‘No Hay Nada Mas’ and the sole foray into commercial rap, ‘Life in Marvellous Times’, produced by Ed Banger’s Mr. In fact, the variety works to create an overall disjointedness, albeit a successful one thanks to an expert final cut. Musical allusions aside, earnestness is mostly absent here, with incisive wordplay and assorted references dotted pneumatically throughout verses that value style and delivery over content and depth.įollowing his ill-conceived diversion into rap-rock, The Ecstatic’s masterful showcase of globetrotting beats thrives where equally disparate producers might have produced an inconsistent muddle. Loosener ‘Supermagic’ is a sucker-blow to the jowls, opening with a radical student address from Malcolm X, urging his audience to “change this miserable condition that exists on this earth”, and giving way to a piercing guitar riff, sampling a Turkish protest song. Kanye is obviously capable of more than the 808s and Autotune that typified his last album, but Madlib’s underground nous and atmospheric prowess make his stewardship a fine choice. The results are straight out of a Stone’s Throw mix, both atmospherically and literally, a sense of alienation, obscurity and hauntedness characterising the overall sound. Kanye West might have been considered a safe pair of hands for this comeback, but Mos Def has given Madlib and brother/protégée Oh No! the majority slab of beat-making. Be it from a dearth of inspiration or terminal distraction, Mos Def’s prodigal talent at the mic had been put to one side.īut after a certain earth-shattering political shift in America, and a considerable absence of heavyweight records, a few of hip-hop’s elder statesmen have been tempted back into the studio, Mos Def among them with an excellent return, his fourth solo album and best since debut Black on Both Sides. Though his acting career could never be considered a vanity project of the likes of his gangsterish peers – he’s starred in films since the age of 14 – his prolific Hollywood turns appeared to signal his decline as one his generation’s finest emcees. Though there are highlights throughout, two of the most notable tracks are at the very end: "History," where Talib Kweli joins in over a wistful J Dilla beat, and "Casa Bey," where a playful Mos Def somehow keeps up with Banda Black Rio's deliriously frantic samba funk.Dante Terrell Smith seemed to have lost all interest in the rap game. Flash, the album is a gumbo that adds juicy dub thwacks, regal synthetic horns, tangled piano vamps, dashes of spiritual jazz, and rolling Afro-beat, almost all of which is cloaked in light reverb. Combined with backdrops from Georgia Anne Muldrow, Preservation, the Neptunes' Chad Hugo, and the Ed Banger label's Mr. Altogether, they provide much of the album's dusty off-centeredness even though "Supermagic" has Mos Def at his most energized and alert, its needling psychedelic guitars and sweeping Bollywood drama are transportive. Some of the productions from brothers Madlib and Oh No were pulled from their instrumental releases, including a pair from the India-themed installments of the Beat Konducta series. For those who are deeply into the Stones Throw label, the album won't take quite as long to process. Oscillating between cerebral gibberish and seemingly nonchalant, off-the-cuff boasts, it's obvious that Mos Def is back to enjoying his trade. It was evident that he was not inspired, no doubt prompting a fair portion of his followers to think, "OK, maybe we should have been more specific: please make a good rap album." On The Ecstatic, it's not as if Mos Def makes a full return to the lucid/bug-eyed rhymes heard on decade-old cuts like "Hater Players" and "Hip Hop." Instead, he comes up with a mind-bending, low-key triumph, the kind of magnetic album that takes around a dozen spins to completely unpack. After he released 2006's True Magic, his first all-rap release in seven years - following the back-to-back instant classics Black Star and Black on Both Sides - it was easier to understand why he had been devoting much more time to acting and diversions like The New Danger. During the first several years of the 2000s, it wasn't unreasonable to want Mos Def, one of the most dazzling living MCs, to make a rap album.
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