Greg Bowes
CD OFTHEWEEK
Mos Def’s last full-length (with Talib Kweli as Black Star) was acclaimed as one of the most groundbreaking hip-hop albums of recent years. Although his latest, Black on Both Sides (Rawkus), is perhaps aimed more squarely at commercial success, it’s just as essential. You may already know the radio favourite Ms Fat Booty, with its infectious vocal sample and the Sade and Gregory Isaacs name-checks, and you’ll undoubtedly become familiar with a few more – the album is liberally littered with potential singles, like the sweet Love or the bumpy Do It Now with Busta Rhymes.
What’s unique about Mos Def as a rapper is his apparent lack of gangster pretensions or loud-mouthed posturing: atop the jazz-funk backing track of Umi Says, for example, he mixes humble self- doubt (”I ain’t no perfect man / I’m trying to do the best that I can”) with proud politics (”I want black people to be free”), while among the frenzied environmental concerns of New World is ”there are places where TB is common as TV”. It seems unlikely you’d catch Mos Def in a Mercedes with a Glock in the glove compartment.
The album’s high point though is Rock’n’Roll, which dashes from a laidback tribute to black music pioneers like James Brown and Nina Simone into full- throttled thrash courtesy of Limp Bizkit. As if this weren’t proof enough that rap stole the baton of rebellion from rock long ago, there’s a rousing version of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ homage to Los Angeles, Under the Bridge, recast as Brooklyn Habitat.
Black on Both Sides is a rarity: remarkably produced, conscious rap music with mass appeal.