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Avg: 4.0 (1033 ratings)
- Date Released: June 9, 2009
- Genre: Hip-Hop/R&B
- Label: Downtown Records
Mos returns to show us how rapping is supposed to sound
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We Say...
Comparing The Ecstatic to decade-old, deified Mos Def classics like Black Star and Black On Both Sides is juggling apples and oranges in a time warp. Let's just say the rapper/actor has re-engaged his "A" game and delivered one of the ten best hip-hop platters of 2009.
The beats on The Ecstatic elasticize from cinematic Bollywood to stripped-down Brooklyn. Its spoken-word samples of Malcolm X and Fela Kuti are perfectly calibrated mood-setters, its guest rappers are old-school all-stars too vibrant for nostalgia. The bountiful highlights include producer Madlib purloining his Beat Konducta in India series while Slick Rick plays naive soldier in Baghdad in "Auditorium." Then there's the pair of tracks from producer Preservation, who steals the show from the bigger names, first by applying a warm, laconic, piano-and-trumpet groove on "Priority," then by pirouetting off Fela's Afrocentric verbal sentiments with a brittle, pile-driver polyrhythm of wood blocks and hand claps — hopscotchin', jump-ropin' music — on "Quiet Dog Bite Hard." Finally, Black Star die-hards will freak to hear Mos reunite with Talib Kweli over a guitar-heavy J Dilla mix on "History."
Mos Def commands the project with intellectual rigor, stylistic adventure and artistic intuition, coming hard and grimy over Oh No's jazzy mix on "Pistola," spitting political wordplay ("lay off the bacon and smokes/and quit laying off the hard-working folks") over Madlib's brilliantly silly mix (a "West Side Story" for nursery school, complete with skittering vibes) on "Revelations," and rhyming "Darwin" with "darlin'" on the spare "Pretty Dancer." As he finishing his elated talk-song on the closing "Casa Bey," purposefully invoking Black Star and Boogie Down Productions, you'll want to hit replay on this ecstatic tour de force. -
They Say...
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. 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. 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. Oscillating between cerebral gibberish and seemingly nonchalant, off-the-cuff boasts, it's obvious that Mos Def is back to enjoying his trade. For those who are deeply into the Stones Throw label, the album won't take quite as long to process. 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. 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. Combined with backdrops from Georgia Anne Muldrow, Preservation, the Neptunes' Chad Hugo, and the Ed Banger label's Mr. 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. 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.
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| 01. |  |
Supermagic |
2:33 |
|
| 02. | |
Twilite Speedball |
3:03 |
|
| 03. | |
Auditorium |
4:34 |
|
| 04. | |
Wahid |
1:40 |
|
| 05. | |
Priority |
1:23 |
|
| 06. | |
Quiet Dog |
2:57 |
|
| 07. | |
Life In Marvelous Times |
3:42 |
|
| 08. | |
The Embassy |
2:46 |
|
| 09. | |
No Hay Nada Mas |
1:42 |
|
| 10. | |
Pistola |
3:03 |
|
| 11. | |
Pretty Dancer |
3:31 |
|
| 12. | |
Workers Comp |
2:03 |
|
| 13. | |
Revelations |
2:04 |
|
| 14. | |
Roses |
3:41 |
|
| 15. | |
History |
2:21 |
|
| 16. | |
Casa Bey |
4:32 |
|
16 Total Tracks, 45:35 Total Length
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Credits
- Justin Dante Tivell - Executive Producer
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