Mos Def has had a wildly swinging career arc. He and fellow lyricist Talib Kweli exploded onto the scene as Black Star, and a series high-profile compilation appearances has Mos poised as a rising star on the then-up-and-coming Rawkus label.
His solo debut, Black on Both Sides, was an excellent opus... but then he was in the MTV remake of Carmen... then he released a "rock" album... then he released the nearly-universally-bludgeoned True Magic.
So The Ecstatic has a lot to answer for, and boy, does it ever. Enlisting the help of Stones Throw siblings Madlib and Oh No, along with Mr. Flash, Preservation and, natch, a beat grabbed from the late J. Dilla's catalog, Mos flows effortlessly from one track to the next.
Several of the album's best beats ("Supermagic," which video game fans will recognize from a skateboard-game commercial whose title escapes me; "Auditorium"; "Wahid") are culled from Madlib and Oh No's time digging through Indian and Turkish vinyl, and upping the tempo ("Casa Bey," "Quiet Dog Bite Hard") is no problem for Mos, who really makes rhyming sound effortless and easy to understand.
Longtime Mos Def fans will be ecstatic about The Ecstatic. Released on the tenth anniversary of Black on Both Sides, it's the followup they've been waiting for all this time.
Hear samples from The Ecstatic at Amazon.com.
