Flash covers the Caribbean ("Worker's Comp"), the Middle East ("Embassy"), and neon Euro-American club-kid slickness ("Life in Marvelous Times"). Madlib contributes a couple tracks from his Beat Konducta in India series, diverting in their original form but done real justice by Mos' rhythm-sparring flow (and, in the case of "Auditorium", Slick Rick's). No's Oxperiment, particularly the massive Selda-sampling acid-rock monster "Heavy" for lead track "Supermagic".
Oh No usefully repurposes some of the Turkish psych from his album Dr. Flash) and Stones Throw siblings (Oh No Madlib) and the producer from True Magic who actually contributed a couple decentish beats (Preservation). It starts with the production, which originates from assorted French touch cats (Mr. This is Mos Def's small-globe statement, an album that comfortably jumps stylistically across continents on a hip-hop goodwill-ambassador tour, prefaced by a statement from Malcolm X during his 1964 appearance at Oxford: "I, for one, will join in with anyone, I don't care what color you are, as long as you want to change this miserable condition that exists on this earth." It's a high-minded intro for an album that most people will hear first and foremost as the comeback bid of a rapper-turned-actor, but it also serves as an important indication that Mos actually gives a shit here, and that he has a stake in something greater than just one corner of the rap world. Maybe it's a stretch, but what the hell.Īnd while Burnett's Watts isn't quite the same place as Mos Def's Bed-Stuy, it does exist as one of many geographical reference points in The Ecstatic's international style. You might go so far as to say this indicates that the best way for Mos Def to reassert what he really means as an artist would be to take his as-seen-in-Hollywood face out of the equation entirely, replacing it with a shot from an entirely different strain of independent, neorealist cinema that more clearly gets at what he represents as a lyricist. And now The Ecstatic, which depicts not Mos Def himself but a red-tinted shot from Charles Burnett's classic 1977 film Killer of Sheep.
Contractual obligation mishap True Magic: no actual album art whatsoever, with a blank-looking Mos staring into space off the surface of the disc itself.
THE CONCEPT OF MOS DEF THE ECSTATIC ALBUM DRIVER
Aggro experimental follow-up The New Danger: that same face now obscured by a stick-up man's mask, his bright red, bloody-looking index fingertip pointing to his own head on some Taxi Driver shit. Iconic solo debut Black on Both Sides: a stark, immediately-striking photo portrait that renders the attribution of his name unnecessary.
THE CONCEPT OF MOS DEF THE ECSTATIC ALBUM FREE
But that's what it is.People looking for offhanded symbolism can feel free to try tracking Mos Def's career trajectory as an MC through his album covers. ''Don't call it a comeback,'' chimes Mos Def. ''Ten years ago we made history, they missing us'', raps Kweli. The penultimate History with former Black Star partner Talib Kweli, meanwhile, uses the Dilla beat to good effect, looking back but never lapsing into lazy nostalgia. Lead-off single Life In Marvellous Times sees him trace his days from 5th grade, ''the pre-crack era'', to the present, all to a dramatic electro soundtrack courtesy of Ed Banger associate Mr Flash. This somewhat patchwork approach to audio sourcing, though, hasn't muddied the clarity of Mos Def's narrative. They used to call Mos Def backpack rap, and on The Ecstatic, it's like he's made the term his own, zig-zagging across borders and pulling inspiration from all directions. But then Auditorium shoots back out East again, a Bollywood-tinged production from Madlib that sees Mos sharing the mic with Slick Rick on a track that weaves a tale of post-occupation conflict in Iraq. Next, Twilite Speedball pulls it back to grey cityscapes, all tight angles in dark alleys, boxed in by horns with Mos reeling off narcotics like a dealer looming from the shadows: ''Bad news and good dope… powder, potions, pills, smoke''. Supermagic erupts on a hacked-up sample of psychedelic Turkish songstress Selda Bagcan, tight rhymes spat over wailing guitar lines.
The opening run of tracks certainly sounds like an MC out to cover a lot of ground. Three years later, though, and The Ecstatic catches the former Black Star MC back on top of his game, lining up beats from Madlib, Oh No and J Dilla and tackling them with a new confidence, scope and narrative thrust. It's been three years since Mos Def's last album, True Magic, and that wasn't anything to crow about – a tossed-off botch of a record that screamed of contract-filler, suggesting Brooklyn rapper Dante Terrell Smith was enjoying his new life as Hollywood character actor so much that time spent back on the mic felt like time wasted.
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