My Gut Reaction: Mos Def - The Ecstatic (June 9, 2009)

The Ecstatic is rapper-slash-singer-slash-actor Mos Def's fourth solo album, but you're forgiven if you had no idea this disc was dropping until you re-read last Sunday's Best Buy sales ad. It seems that Next Day Air wasn't really the right vehicle to advertise Mos Def's return to the hip hop game, especially because, as I understand it, Dante barely appears on screen. And yet, he received a bigger credit than the guy who played Avon Barksdale on The Wire, mainly because he's Mos Def. That's the same reason many bloggers are plugging The Ecstatic as the best shit since sliced cheese.

The Ecstatic brings us The Mighty Mos on his new record label, Downtown Records, where he shares cubicle space with the likes of Gnarls Barkley, Santigold, and Carla Bruni, the current First Lady of France. This is a far cry from his previous home, Geffen Records, who used to house acts such as Gza/Genius and The Roots but are now stuck with the likes of Common (not a bad thing, unless you are prone to involuntary recall of Universal Mind Control), Snoop Dogg, and The Game. Mos surrounded himself with a small dream team of collaborators who do their best to bring out the best in their gracious host: acclaimed underground producers Madlib and Oh No (Madlib's younger brother) provide a combined six tracks out of sixteen, while Chad Hugo, Talib Kweli, and the late James "J Dilla" Yancey stop by to send best wishes.

So let's see what all the fuss is about.

1. SUPERMAGIC
I didn't care for this rap album intro masquerading as a song.

2. TWILITE SPEEDBALL
The beat sounds absolutely nothing like anything Chad Hugo (from production duo The Neptunes) ever produced for Kenna. (Remember Kenna? Because you probably should.) The song still sounds alright, though, even if Dante's rhymes sound like half-finished thoughts that could benefit from a good editor with a gaggle of red Sharpies. It helps that this comes across as alternate-universe Neptunes, even though you could still dance to this if you tried.

3. AUDITORIUM (FEAT SLICK RICK)
This is actually really fucking good. Madlib's subdued beat focuses more on (a Middle Eastern-esque) melody than the drum beat, and that decision helps you pay close attention to Mos Def (who actually sounds like he put some effort into his lyrics this time around) and Slick Rick, credited on the back cover as The Ruler, comes off as, well, the Ruler he plays on TV. This shit is nice!

4. WAHID
This also wasn't that bad. Thankfully, this Madlib invasion also isn't very long, lest the song's theme get stomped into the ground with the force of your girl's flip flops.

5. PRIORITY
This is also really short, but this time, I wanted to hear more of Dante's impressive spitting over Preservation's instrumental. SO far, The Ecstatic is perfect for listeners with short attention spans, but that may only be because Mos Def was on a deadline and needed to rush back to the set.

6. QUIET DOG BITE HARD
Meh.

7. LIFE IN MARVELOUS TIMES
Mr. Flash's beat manages to sound pretty, well, marvelous, but Dante's rhymes, curiously, come off as lazy. His flow does, anyway: maybe he just wasn't acclimated to the slower pace of the track. I liked his singing at the end, though. For fans of the beat, you get an extra minute of it at the end, so enjoy!

8. THE EMBASSY
The goofy intro doesn't really lend itself to the Middle Eastern-inspired Mr. Flash beat; in fact, it's more distracting than it should be. It takes Dante forever to step in and start rapping, though, so this "song" is really short, which is a plus, since I wasn't impressed at all.

9. NO HAY NADA MAS
Mos Def raps and sings in Spanish, mainly because he fucking can. This doesn't sound the least bit bad, though, and it's fairly brief, so I kind of dig it. I wouldn't necessarily bump this in my car, though.

10. PISTOLA
I liked Oh No's beat, especially the hurried drums that inform much of Dante's flow. Hearing the chorus performed two different ways at the exact same time was unnerving, though, not unlike watching a film by Joel Schumacher and expecting it to be good: if Mos was trying to make this song appeal to an art house crowd, he succeeded, but at what cost?

11. PRETTY DANCER
There aren't many references to Charles Darwin in hip hop today. I liked Madlib's instrumental more than the rhymes (not surprising, since I'm a fan of his...which begs the question: why the fuck have I not written more about Madlib?), but this still comes across as an altogether pleasant and complete package, especially for the final minute and a half.

12. WORKERS COMP.
"You can't break my heart, 'cause that'll just get you fired"? Huh? Dante alternates between rapping and singing pretty seamlessly, and Mr. Flash's beat helps move shit along. The way Dante sings the word "fired" is hilarious, as well.

13. REVELATIONS
Madlib's beat is fucking awesome sauce. Is it too much to ask for an entire Mos Def album with his production exclusively? He did it for Talib Kweli, you know.

14. ROSES (FEAT GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW)
Dante's ad libs are really fucking annoying, as if he's trying to channel the ghost of Jim Jones. As it takes the man almost two full minutes to drop a verse, this comes across as more of a song by Georgia Anne Muldrow featuring Mos Def. (Which it actually is: the back cover of The Ecstatic reads that this song is "by Georgia Anne Muldrow, featuring me".) Her vocals and production aren't bad, though, so this could have been a lot worse.

15. HISTORY (FEAT TALIB KWELI)
How about that, a collaboration between Mos Def and Talib Kweli (produced by the late J Dilla to boot). This is what was missing from The New Danger and True Magic. The vocal sample frustrates my listening experience, but both men sound fucking inspired. So how about another Black Star album, guys? Anyone? Bueller?

16. CASA BEY
The Ecstatic's third single would have sounded better than "Supermagic" as the album's introductory song, but I digress: this is still a pretty good way to end your album, thanks to Preservation's multifaceted work behind the boards (with an assist from our host) and Dante's vocals, which I'm already on record as saying that I like. The piano at the end was also welcome.

THE LAST WORD: Maybe the bloggers are right to champion this one. The Ecstatic is an improvement over True Magic, but thanks to its lack of cohesion (it sounds like a bunch of spare Mos Def songs stitched together), it doesn't top either Black On Both SIdes or The New Danger. (Yes, I said The New Danger.) Mos Def sounds like he's actively trying to get back to the top of his game, though, and he surrounds himself with mostly hot instrumentals, so the overall listening experience was actually pretty fucking great. Other than a couple of tracks ("Revelations" and "Auditorium" especially) that may end up in shuffle rotation on the iPod, I don't know if I'll spin The Ecstatic all that often, but this is still deserving of your time.

-Max

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