#MOS DEF THE ECSTATIC SAMPLE FULL#

And for every 50 Cent, there is a Mos Def, the rapper-turned-actor who is actually great at both without being pretentious, big-headed, or crude. For every Asher Roth, there is an Atmosphere. These days, for every Ne-Yo, there is a P.O.S. These cycles and their impact have continued for decades now, and to those not paying attention, it would seem as if nothing in hip-hop has really changed.īut the rampant mediocrity and the frustration that mediocrity has caused has, over time, allowed for the greater sifting of the bad from the truly good, those who’ve rejected the notion that hip-hop’s evolution has stalled and is relegated only to what can be heard on Top 40 radio stations and commercials for new ringtones, who’ve taken up the mantle of artists like Public Enemy and De La Soul and decided that enough is enough. These ventures almost never turn out well, and eventually these artists retreat into the comfort of their musical sphere. This leads to rappers who branch into other mediums, like the screen or the printed page. The better a rapper is at emulating their idols, the more money they make, the higher their profile becomes, the more ingrained their name is on the popular consciousness. Worse yet, the music is locked in an incessant, almost fearful grip on the coattails of past and more successful rappers, which leads to mediocrity begetting further mediocrity. 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.It is the eternal struggle of hip-hop music, the great lamentation of critics and fans alike, that the genre is so often heavily loaded with almost stereotypical hedonism, greed, homophobia, and sexism that it becomes a parody of itself.

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.

#MOS DEF THE ECSTATIC SAMPLE FULL#

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.

Mos def the ecstatic sample