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. 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. The album was recorded during 2007 to 2009, and production was handled by J Dilla, Mr. The Ecstatic is the fourth studio album by American hip hop artist Mos Def, released Jon Downtown Records. 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. Listen free to Mos Def The Ecstatic (Supermagic, Twilite Speedball and more). According to the PR around this new single from the upcoming The Ecstatic, Mos Def happened to be in South America for some reason or another- scouting locations for The Brazilian Job before it. Slick Rick), Quiet Dog, and of course, History (feat. Spotify based fans of Mos are devastated to see such hits as Auditorium (feat. Ratings: 1 Last Sold:Lowest:5.20 Median:7.29 Highest:10.41 Videos (9) Edit Mos Def The Ecstatic 45:39 Mos Def - Auditorium (feat. According to Mos Def, the phrase 'the ecstatic' was 'used in the 17th and 18th centuries to describe people who were either mad or divinely inspired and consequently dismissed as kooks'. Having said all that this album is dope - very dope. On his previous releases Mos sounded really lazy to me, but that is gone here. Boogey Man Music, The Panties, Sex, Love & Money, and The Rape Over are classic tracks. For those who are deeply into the Stones Throw label, the album won't take quite as long to process. A couple months ago, The Ecstatic by Mos Def was removed from Spotify, likely due to label disputes involving Mos Defs home label, Rawkus Records, and the label which the album was released under, Downtown Records. The Ecstatic is Mos Defs attempt at making a Madvillainy-like album. 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. The album has been described as a conscious and alternative hip hop record with an eccentric, internationalist quality. Mos has one of those voices that'd make you holler if he were reading furniture assembly instructions in Esperanto, but when he goes from an all-too-short burst of rapidfire big-up-Bed-Stuy verse to an extended bit of rambling poetry that sounds like the go-hard version of "Umi Says", it's kind of tempting to just zone out and let the sound of his voice overtake the words.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. The Ecstatic was a widespread critical success, viewed as a huge return to form for Mos Def and one of the decade's best hip-hop albums. Now what he's rapping about, that's yet to be determined. And if you were holding your breath for something that'd give his flow a bit of a workout, go ahead and exhale: Mos sounds more electrified than he has in ages sparring with the rhythm and throwing down emphases that have the same kind of slippery liveliness that the horns do. So Mos took it back to Brooklyn, got DJ Preservation and Dante Smith to chop it up a little, and wound up with a funky-ass samba beat to rock over. According to the PR around this new single from the upcoming The Ecstatic, Mos Def happened to be in South America for some reason or another- scouting locations for The Brazilian Job before it got caught up in development hell, maybe?- and got hipped to Banda Black Rio's " Casa Forte" via Rio de Janeiro hip-hop artist MV Bill.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |