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MOS DEF: THE ECSTATIC
Call off the dogs, turn off the searchlights, I think I’ve found the best album of 2009. OK maybe I’m stretching it a bit but the new Mos Def record “The Ecstatic” is going to land in my top three no question. I was a huge fan of Mos Def and Talib Kweli’s Black Star as well as Mos’ debut album Black On Both Sides but since then he hasn’t done much that’s interested me. I didn’t greet The Ecstatic with a lot of enthusiasm but from the very first note of the opening track I was hooked. This is a layered, complex album that reminds me of the kind of intricate musical structures made famous by the Bomb Squad during the height of Public Enemy.
The Ecstatic starts with a Malcolm X sample then fires into the first track “Supermagic” a song that wraps Mos Def’s unique flow around a seriously groovy guitar riff. There’s a lot happening in this first track but it never loses focus and neither does the album. The Ecstatic seems to build its songs off of one specific instrument that grounds the rest of the production and gives Mos a place to bounce his vocals off of. For instance the second song “Twilite Speedball” bounces in with a deep horn that almost sounds like something from The Shining soundtrack. The vocals stay in time with the horn as the beat plays against both creating a really interesting brew of music.
What makes this album so great is that from one song to the other I kept saying “This is the jam” and then the next song would start and I would be forced to say, “No, this is the jam”. Mos has enlisted some really talented producers to help shape the rapid-fire ideas coming through on The Ecstatic. Madlib, Oh No, Preservation, and Chad from The Neptunes form together effortlessly and allow Mos Def to embed his political and socially driven lyrics over their music.
One of my favorite tracks on the record is the Madlib produced “Auditorium” featuring Slick Rick. First of all anytime a song features Slick Rick sign me right up but this one is really special. If there was any doubt about the magic of Slick Rick’s lyrical ability this will lay those to rest. His rhyme about a soldier’s day in Iraq is not only poignant but also funny and incredibly witty.
The Ecstatic is also Mos Def’s most lyrically ambitious album to date. Gone is the underlying ego that made some of his records hard to listen to. Instead there’s clarity of ideas on this album, a maturity that Mos Def needed in order to take the next step in his career. There is of course the necessary reunion track with Talib Kweli titled “History”, which made me yearn for another Black Star record.
“Life In Marvelous Times” is my second favorite track on the album because it manages to be a head-bobbing tune that also has weight to it. Other standout songs include “Pistola”, “Workers Comp” and “Casa Bey”. To be honest there really isn’t a bad song on this record at all.
The Ecstatic is an album that will move Mos Def back into the forefront of Hip Hop and help shed some light on the underground players such as Doseone, MF Doom, Atmosphere and others who might help shock the heart of hip hop into beating again. With so much of the genre dedicated to the musical listing of what a rapper owns or some inane dance move this is the kind of album that makes me think Hip Hop could rise for the ashes and reclaim its long lost position as not only a musical style but also an artistic statement.
