Rating:
Genre:
Rap
Release Date: 10/12/2004
When it takes you five years to follow up a debut of near-landmark stature, you're setting yourself up for failure.
Mos Def's second solo album is not disastrous, but it's a sprawling, overambitious mess. A handful of songs from this 75-minute affair feature
Black Jack Johnson, the
rock band
Mos set up with some very respected musicians: bassist
Doug Wimbish (
Sugar Hill house band,
Living Colour), drummer
Will Calhoun (
Living Colour), guitarist
Dr. Know (
Bad Brains), and keyboardist
Bernie Worrell (
Parliament/
Funkadelic). Unsurprisingly, the hottest moments tend to come when
Mos sticks to what he does best. One slight exception to this is
"Modern Marvel," a nine-minute suite smeared with a series of
Marvin Gaye samples.
Mos sings in whispers (he makes
Pharrell sound like
Luther, but he has the required spirit), momentum floats in as easy as a light breeze, and then the MC shifts into goose pimple-raising mode. Throughout the whole thing, his conviction is apparent.
~Andy Kellman, All Music Guide
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