More Mos

The perception Mos Def has of himself would be a pretty interesting thing to hear about. If coaxed into discussing his talents, he’d probably demur and thank his parents…or God. Or someone other than himself.

Maybe that’s why white people like him. It might also have to do with the fact that he has mastered most mediums of communication in the twenty-first century. And part of that stems from releasing good music.

Somehow, the fact that he has a new offering out soon isn’t too surprising – it seems like its been awhile. But the disc appears to have gone through a transformation. Initially, the album was to be entitled The Ecstatic. However, a quick glance at his homepage shows that the as of yet to be released disc has a single called Life in Marvelous Times.

In the end though, the title doesn’t matter so much as who’s slated to turn in contributions. Thus far Slick Rick, Oh No and Madlib have already turned in their work for the project. And no, it doesn’t seem like Madlib is over-extending himself. The pairing of the L.A. producer and the Brooklyn emcee makes overwhelming sense. And actually, it’s a bit surprising that it hadn’t happened on a previous offering.

But since Black on Both Sides was released in 1999, there hasn’t really been a general consensus of the quality of his work. In some outlets, he’s praised and others maligned. So at this point in his career when he could easily turn to acting, dropping the mic for good, does the reception of this new disc matter?

Most likely if one scoured those two other full lengths for the stand out tracks, assembled them and pretended that the original source didn’t exist, everyone would be fine. That idea would of course work with countless other artists, but it seems that Mos needs a disc to make him immortal. He’s certainly more than Black Starr and his solo efforts, but it seems like his work hasn’t been canonized yet. And hopefully that happens. Mos needs keeps working in any and every medium that he wants, because even if the new disc isn’t great, there’ll be a few tracks that hint at his greatness.