Mos Def - "The Ecstatic"

Frankly, this album irked me a bit. I'm all for alternative hip-hop, but I feel like Mos Def took it a little too far on this one. To be able to pull of 80s beats, sampled beats from Indian music, and songs in Spanish all in the same album is a bit far-fetched. Even so, it's not exactly the instrumentals that bother me on this album.

I actually enjoy all of the beats on this album...definitely some awesome producers on these tracks (i.e. Madlib and J. Dilla). I just don't really appreciate how they're mixed yet, and how Mos Def handles each one. His flow is very unique, and many of these beats don't compliment it. It even sounds like he's off-beat in some instances. That's not always a bad thing, but it did strike me in the wrong way this time.

If you listen to the tracks that I've chosen as my favorites, you'll see that they're not far off from old school Mos Def. Probably an indicator of my overall sentiment.

I'll give my honest opinion: Mos Def's music has been subpar (for my standards at least) since he left Rawkus. I mean, if you've ever seen Brown Sugar, you'll know what I'm talking about...Rawkus keeps it real... true hip-hop without any of the extra fuss tacked on. I'm not trying to hate on experimenting with different sounds, but I'm not feelin' the new sounds that he's got going on this album. Really though, I think Mos has been off a bit since his album "The New Danger". This album is a pretty significant improvement from that one.

As a parting note, I will say that I think this is the type of album that will grow on you after listening many times through. I've only listened to it a couple of times, but I think there is some promise for future days. I understand what Mos was trying to do here. He's been out of the game for a while and NEEDED to come back with a strong release after crashing and burning on "The New Danger". He wanted to bring a fresh, but familiar, sound. Anyway, I'll come back and update my opinion as necessary after listening to "The Ecstatic" some more.

My vote: 2.5 stars
My favorite tracks: "History" ft. Talib Kweli - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdqG6EfOe6g & "Auditorium" ft. Slick Rick - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT-hYXqTN38 & "Priority" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkUs13bIBao