He touches on topics of life, love, war, recession and religion, and sounds as raw, energetic and inspired as he has for a long time – perhaps, yes, since Black on Both Sides. But what of him as a rapper? Well, he’s willing to experiment adding his own verse to Stones Throw soul vocalist Georgia Anne Muldrow’s ‘Roses’, and rapping entirely in Spanish on the surprisingly pleasant ‘No Hay Mada Mas’. and Mos himself contributes to the production on The Ecstatic’s energetic closer ‘Casa Bey’. Thankfully Preservation, who produced the majority of Mos’ last LP True Magic, steps his game up with the soulful ‘Priority’ and Fela Kuti-sampling ‘Quiet Dog Bite Hard’. Flash proves a welcome addition behind the boards for three tracks, including the drum-heavy rattler ‘Life in Marvellous Times’. Production-wise, The Ecstatic’s the definition of solid, with Stones Throw’s finest Madlib providing four backing tracks from his back catalogue (including the album’s highlight in the Slick Rick-featuring ‘Auditorium’) and his younger brother Oh No adding his unique mix of funk, soul and jazz to ‘Pistola’ and album opener ‘Supermagic.’ The Neptunes’ Chad Hugo contributes the heavy-hitting ‘Twilight Speedball’, while Ed Banger’s Mr. But almost ten years on from his first solo LP (not to mention the last three years away from the rap scene), he’s at least come close with his fourth full-length, The Ecstatic. It’s been said that Mos Def will never do anything as good as his 99’ classic Black on Both Sides, and it’s probably true. 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.Rating: 7.5 / Label: CD/LP / Label: Downtown 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. 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.
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