Mos Def - The Ecstatic

Mos Def, The talented Rapper/Singer/Actor/Poet/Producer etc., released his fourth solo project entitled The Ecstatic June 9th of this year. The Digital Booklet included off of iTunes contains a thank you letter from Mos himself. In it he expresses his gratitude for us spending our time and money on the work and hopes we enjoy it. I'm being vague so that I don't actually ruin how awesome it is if you spend the 10 bucks on it, support!

The album starts off with a snippet from a Malcolm X speech to Oxford University students in 1964.(3:05). Mos and Oh No show great chemistry with the first track "Supermagic"; raw flow with a neck-jerking Indian sample. Mos also shows his vocal range by hopping around octaves and singing "Heartbeat" by Taana Gardner for a hot second. At the end of the track, he tells you to "Have Fun", leading into the Chad Hugo (of the Neptunes) produced track, "Twilite Speedball". Bangin' horns and a nice live sound to it as Mos brings out his Boogie Man flow. Madlib and his brother Oh No take up a third of the production on the Ecstatic, While Ed Banger Arist Mr. Flash (Where artists like JUSTICE Busy P were born and raised) and someone I know nothing about named Preservation hold it down with 3 and 4 tracks, respectively. Stones Throw songstress Georgia Anne Muldrow produces and sings on one of my favorite tracks, "Roses". A wonderful, vocally beautiful duet. Black Star reform like Voltron on "History"; a posthumous Dilla blessing with the beat. "Workers Comp" brings out Mr. Def's Island swag and "No Hay Nada Mas" shows his Spanish FLUency.

(Shits sick, for those who ain't clever)

Even though The Ecstatic is being promoted and distributed through a small label called Downtown, It's a much stronger album than his past two Geffen releases - The New Danger & True Magic. This may be due to label influence or restrictions during those records, but I don't know that for sure. All I know is that The New Danger was OK but not very cohesive as an album and True Magic was poorly promoted. No one even knew it dropped, to be honest. However, this album is MY Black on Both Sides 2.

Listen to this album and tell me who YOU are betting on for the rap battle in New Orleans.