With the release of his sprawling sophomore album, The New Danger, Mos Def has made a bid for the title of hip-hop’s most valuable player. Few artists are creating such passionate, volcanic material, and none of them have the benefit of a Hollywood career to get it to the masses. The New Danger debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200, one spot back of Celine Dion and four away from hogtying George Strait.
The record expands on the R&B/blues/thrash explorations of Mos Def’s 1999 debut, Black On Both Sides. Like that album’s chilling, soul-metal epic “Rock And Roll,” this effort is packed with crunching power chords, earthy grooves and equal helpings of rapping and singing.
Black On Both Sides is an awesome display of talent, mostly exhibited within the confines of the standard rap song. The boundaries of The New Danger are blurrier. The record constantly shifts gears, including Muddy Waters riffing (“Black Jack”), Prince-like sexual yearning (“The Beggar”), furious metal attacks (“War”) and an astounding, nine-minute tribute to Marvin Gaye.
Strict fans of Mos Def dance floor classics like “Hip Hop” and “Ms. Fat Booty” will likely be disappointed this time around. However, a few tracks do hearken back to rap’s early-‘90s golden age, like the Kanye West-produced “Sunshine” and the first single, “Sex Love And Money,” which throws a fleet of ominous trombones on the downbeat. “The Rape Over” takes the beat and rhyme scheme from Jay-Z’s “The Takeover,” and uses it as a platform to expose the hypocrisy of “bling bling” rap culture. Mos delivers the first line with typical zeal: “Old white men is runnin’ this rap shit.” (The track has caused such a commotion that Geffen won’t be including it on future printings.)
In this day and age, Mos Def has practically done the impossible. He’s created an unchecked, uninhibited work of art, blatantly spitting in the face of corporate America and enjoying the biggest sales of his career. Should this scare “urban” music execs and radio programmers who get paid to play worthless crap every day? Most definitely.
Appeared in the November 4, 2004, issue of Artvoice.