Mos Def gets back to his roots and produces a hip-hop album the way it should be.  Stu Ruiz has more.

      Mos Def’s The Ecstatic serves as another branch out for the MC.  Mos Def reverts back to his bread-and-butter—underground hip-hop, thanks in no small part to beats provided by Madlib and his brother Oh No, both members of the genre’s leading label, Stone Throw Entertainment.  He has cemented his legacy among the socially conscious jazz-hip-hop scene with past releases Black Star and Black on Both Sides, as well as serve as the eclectic black music preservationist (The New Danger).  With The Ecstatic, he seems determined to push himself into new territory, even if the results can be somewhat uneven.

     Mos Def has always been known to sing quite a bit on his tracks, but he does it on this album more than ever, putting at least a verse of it into   most songs.  That aesthetic extends to his rapping as well on this album.  His familiar flow is intact, though slightly altered; there’s more attention paid to the melodies behind the songs than in records past, and while this focus proves less flashy and less impressive superficially, the new approach gives each song a more distinct feel while making everything just a tad catchier.  “Workers Comp” is a perfect example of this, with Mos easing between rapping and singing verses smooth enough that you’re not likely to notice when the tone has changed and the rhymes become serious,  “Tell the tough guys we’re tougher than tough times / and nerves don’t snap when the clock touch crunch time.”

     All this talk about melodies isn’t to say that in the pocket rhyming is ignored, however.  “Pretty Dancer” kicks off with a bass line that oozes groove alongside a tough but shifting backbeat.  Mos Def hits the spot from the start, giving an impassioned performance with lines like “diamonds in production grow greater than the pressure / none turned to sum and the some turned to mall / the mall turned to mini and the mini turned to all” followed by “block worked when the block turned jobless / the triple beam think the best need to weigh their options / smarts / get smart with your smartest / too busy surviving to worry about Darwin / darling.”  The rhymes come out fast and are almost indecipherable through the first couple of listens.  If he really is talking about the commoditization and gentrification of urban society and the tragedy that those most affected are pushed too far to the edge to fight against it, then there’s certainly some brains to that funk.  

     Lead single “Life in Marvelous Times” is a big stomp of a song, on first impression it almost seems as if it is going for a mainstream rap sound, what with the uncharacteristically non-dexterous rapping and borderline sloganeering.  The beat is rather basic even if all kinds of sounds are running in and out, but the song doesn’t really go anywhere, and sounds nothing like a Mos Def song in all the worst ways.  Embassy follows in the same style, and when considering these tracks along with the superfluous movie samples, one starts to get the impression that the album could have been cut down a bit.

     Now to the real surprise of the album, Talib Kweli guests on a song! Over a J Dilla beat!  Now as I’m sure all Mos Def fans are aware, he and Talib collaborated on what is among the greatest hip-hop albums ever made, a slap to the face of the commercial West Coast hip-hop of the time and a statement of purpose as the debut for both artists.  Their track here, “History,” is done over a beat by the late J Dilla, whose influence seems to be growing greater after his untimely death.  The beat on display features time signatures that shift without notice and organ and guitar stabs that add depth to an impressive piece of work.  The lyrics tend towards ruminations on what having a past means to a person, both personal and universal.  While his rhyming isn’t quite as nimble or high energy as Kweli, they are the most though provoking, as shown with this verse:
“I was born in a season where the world was quiet and cold / celebrations were going on / some were happy, some were sad / some felt bad from being good / some felt good from being bad, feelings pass and change

Year of the ox seven and three, M.D., the history / every soul got one of these / its where you been and where you be / and without           understanding you cannot proceed / complete, it start then it end / then it just go around again / again.”

     All talk of Mos Def’s past collaborations aside, this is album is proof of his versatility, and while not quite the masterpiece that Black Star or his solo debut Black on Both Sides were, The Ecstatic is a quality album that proves he still has a lot left to give to hip-hop.