October 21, 1999
On this, his long-overdue solo debut, Mos Def fulfills and surpasses the promise he showed on last year's outstanding collaboration with Talib Kweli as Black Star. I've been bemoaning the current state of hip hop (other than the obvious: The Roots' masterful Things Fall Apart, still unchallenged as the single best album of the year), but I'm bemoaning no more. I'm too busy spinning this disc endlessly in my car, my living room, my workplace, marveling at the tourniquet-tight lyrics, piercing intelligence and warm spirituality of this album. I asserted in my review of Black Star that with funkier tracks, world domination could be nigh for this man - I'm here to crown the King. With live instrumentation like spare piano, tinkling xylophone, cool vibes, a splash of R&B and even some screaming punk guitar (!) giving the beats warm life and inventive melodic hooks, the album's tone ranges from a gorgeous mellow jazz vibe to gritty breaks and is wildly addictive from start to finish. This is hip hop at its finest.
Find me a current Presidential candidate with the wit and balls to lay the blame for ecological destruction the way Mos Def does in "New World Water": "There are places where TB is common as TV 'cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy / the type of cats who pollute the whole shoreline and then purify, sell it for $1.25." He memorably reclaims rock's heritage, reminding rock fans that the Rolling Stones stole everything they ever did from Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry ("Rock n Roll"), warns against a culture in which kids can't spell but can whip you in Playstation (the mind-blowing "Mathematics") points out the double standards in the justice system and (refreshingly) criticizes misogyny.
Rather than stridently didactic, Mos Def instead preaches from love: "My parents made me with love, I take the love they made me with to make rhymes and beats," and that warmth infuses the whole album. Still, he's not afraid to take a stand when the crowd needs a wake up call: "Speech is my hammer, bang the world into shape." What have we here? A bona fide idealist. A lyrically inventive, remarkably skilled one at that. Do I need to point out how essential this album is? Oh - I just did.
- Jared O'Connor
I am Hip Hop