The Ecstatic might just be the transitional album many mainstream fans need to discover those lesser-known hip-hop gems that have been over looked for years. This album has just enough experimentation peppered with an adequate amount of hooks to allow accessibility. Mos Def’s raps about global politics, love, spirituality, and social conditions were informed by the zeitgeist of the late 2000s, Black internationalism, and Pan-Islamic ideas, as he incorporated a number of Islamic references throughout the album. This fast paced track is framed with a deep mallet drumbeat and a quick rhyming scheme that hardly leaves Def room to breathe (did I just spit hot fire? Seriously, rap that last sentence, I think I just became an MC).įlaws aside, Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, is a great album for the current state of mainstream hip-hop. The Ecstatic was described by music journalists as a conscious and alternative Hip Hop record with an eccentric, internationalist quality. However, my favorite song is “Quite Dog Bite Hard”. 34 The phrase resonated with him, as he believed no one else in hip hop had ever recorded an album like The Ecstatic. The most accessible track, “Life in Mysterious Times”, has a dirty south crunk style beat that stands out as the obvious choice for a first single. According to Mos Def, the phrase 'the ecstatic' was 'used in the 17th and 18th centuries to describe people who were either mad or divinely inspired and consequently dismissed as kooks'. “Wahid” has a thick bass line that emphasizes Def’s smooth flow and intense rhyming pattern.
Keep your ears open on “Auditorium”, for it’s 70’s kung-fu music intro and smooth fade in and out of a beautiful Madlib beat that gives you the impression it could have appeared on MF Doom’s Born Like This. "Pistola"," Pretty Dancer" and "Revelations").Īlbeit flawed, The Ecstatic still brandishes several gems. Def almost accomplishes this blend, but can’t seem to flee the mix-tape/unfinished feeling on several jams (i.e. Madlib’s bongo drum/pipe organ beats give Def the ability to seem effortlessly talented, yet progressively accessible (a very hard combination to pull off). On The Ecstatic, Mos Def takes his first giant leap forward by collaborating with Madlib on a number of songs. The Ecstatic is leaps and bounds better than Def’s 2006 release, True Magic (his worst album to date), and may be his best album since leaving Black Star. Mos Def has accomplished such a feat in his latest release, The Ecstatic. I love coming across a good album that I wasn’t anticipating. Something I always seem to enjoy in music is a surprise.
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