Mos Def: the ecstasy of redemption

Every great musician has its weak albums. However, what sets them apart from the rest is their ability to recover from their bad moments and delights us, once again, with another good record. Mos Def has done it with The Ecstatic (2009) -his latest album. After blowing us away with The New Danger (2004), Mos Def disappointed all of us by releasing the mediocre True Magic (2006). Lots of people blamed it on the fact that Mos was starting to have a great moment in film making -he acted on Michel Gondry's Be kind, rewind. I guess that suggested that he wasn't entirely focused on his music career. But Mos Def is back with an astonishing record under his sleeve. The Ecstatic sounds like the extraordinary hip-hop only Mos can deliver. Some of its tracks have that The new danger's experimental vibe while others have the best of Mos' early years (Black on both sides and Blackstar). This is the equivalent to what Q-tip did with The Renaissance in 2008: The Ecstatic is the best hip-hop record I've listened to this year. No doubt.