Mos Def - New Danger
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CD Details
Artist: Mos DefEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2004-10-12
Music Label: Geffen Records
Soundtracks:
- Boogie Man Song
- Freaky Black
- Ghetto Rock
- Zimzallabim
- The Rape Over
- Black Jack
- Bedstuy Parade
- Sex, Love & Money
- Sunshine
- Close Edge
- The Panties
- War
- Grown Man Business
- Modern Marvel
- Life is Real
- The Easy Spell
- The Beggar
- Champion Requiem
Music reviews of New Danger
Music Review: Taking Risks, Being Dangerous, and Pulling it Off
Rating: 4 Stars
Be daring, be different, be impractical, be anything that will assert integrity of purpose and imaginative vision against the play-it-safers, the creatures of the commonplace, the slaves of the ordinary.
- Cecil Beaton
Perhaps this should have been named Mos Def presents his rock band Black Jack Johnson (BJJ), which in itself is a perilous gamble for the keep-it-real-paranoia of hip hop... One thing's for sure, Mos ain't givin' a damn.
Not only is he looking to take risks, he's looking to be outright dangerous with it. Mos' album goes off like a stylistic grenade, which will make it difficult for those with preconceived notions of Mos to hold on to with both hands. Mos' "Black on Both Sides" CD hipped us all to his penchant toward true instrumentation, but no way in hell could anyone figure the progression would come to this.
"The Boogie Man Song" is surfer rock meets jazz. The thinly-arranged instrumentation best suits Mos' behind-the-beat singing style. The Michelle N'Dege O'Cello-styled vibe on the song is throughout most of the album, save blistering moments of hard rock. "Freaky Black Greetings" brings BJJ out front, with the heavy guitar crunch that caught many by surprise on "Black on Both Side"'s song "Rock `N Roll." Layered with echo-laden lyrics and a seventies-fashioned organ, this song will have most hip hoppers grabbing the CD case and looking over Mos' photographic twists of minstrelsy on the inside of the liner notes, wondering what Mos is trying to pull off.
"Ghetto Rock"'s name should hip you to what's up. With an industrial-synth groove and super fly guitars, Mos is off to spitting on what the BJJ is all about. This is the most explosive attempt at merging the abrasive buzz of hard rock with the attitude and hip hop by a black rapper since Ice-T pissed off Warner Brothers and the Fraternal Order of Police with Body Count. "Zimzallabim" goes in the same vein. Mos kicks it over a standard New Yorker's backpack beat with stabs of whirring distorted guitars (playing backwards in some instances). The effect brings to mind a montage of burning Newports, unlaced Tims and bubble jackets against staircases. By now, it should be obvious to you the Renaissance man Mos is serious about this rock ***t.
Although not as sonically absorbing, "The Rape Over" is ideal for understanding the politics of the rap game, while "Blue Black Jack" is an authentic blues that is so woodpile-friendly that it won't even go over well enough for your average hole-in-the-wall. This belongs to Shug Avery-type juke joints where you can see the dirt under the place from some missing floorboard. Mos wails convincingly about the exploits of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, resurrecting, unbeknownst to Ice Cube, the very first "nigga" whites "loved to hate." The stomping jam is a knee slapper su'm fierce.
"Bedstuy Parade & Funeral March" is made for the riding down the road. A winding blues in its own right. Mos, the actor we've come to love, narrates as a lovesick, traveling blues man singing about a gangsta woman too fine to trust or forget. "Sex, Love & Money" is a ballsy, brass band-flavored ode to what makes the world go round. Flutes, tubas and trombones give off one of the most ominous grooves you'll hear this side of seventies blaxploitation themes. Definitely soundtrack and strip club friendly. "Close Edge" is more closely aligned to standard hip hop, violent and unrepentant. Since the CD goes in so many artistic directions, it could be jarring, especially if one's looking for the outright positivity many look to Mos Def for. "Grown Man Business" has the gritty Wu-Tang, mixtape production feel. Featured rapper Minnesota lays it solid and true about the ways of the street game. Mos comes with it as well, even harder than in "Close Edge." His mike sounds even dirtier, as if he was grippin' it at the top and rapping through his fingers like the Lost Boys used to do.
"Modern Marvel" is a decent ode to Marvin Gaye. Gaye's soulful runs set a reminiscent canvas behind Mos' questioning of where the world is headed. Ah, consciousness! "Life is Real" has Mos sounding suspiciously like Prodigy of Mobb Deep (without all the exaggerated gunplay). "The Easy Spell" is on some ol' Lenny Kravitz/Cody Chestnutt stuff. The guitars come back with a cheerleader-like cadenced, acid rock feel about the fly girl on the move for Mr. Right.
The song least likely to be forgotten will be the haunting "The Beggar." Couched safely at the back of the CD, we find Mos unusually bold with vulnerability. To a slow, bossa nova-type groove, Mos croons heartfelt refrains for a woman's understanding of his love for her. "The Beggar" is a slow love tune that goes beyond conventions with its Vegas strip bar-sounding keyboard, Spanish guitar solo and a painting-peeling scream at the end that would even scare the hell out of Prince.
In "Life Is Real," you will hear Mos Def's plan all along, to "reach the world but touch the street first." It may be easier to listen to a few of the songs that are closely related stylistically. This may be one of the first albums in years to hit pop, alternative, rock and urban stations with songs so appropriate to the respective formats that they'll give the impression that Mos has come out with four or five totally different albums at the same time. The grenade may not have hit everything in a 360 radius flush, but everything it did has the integrity world famous photographer Cecil Beaton espoused necessary to force slaves of the ordinary to duck for cover.
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Description of New Danger
Japanese pressing of 2004 release, scheduled to include one bonus track. Details TBA. Universal.More than a mere rap album, Mos Def's long-awaited The New Danger combines hip-hop, blues, soul, and rock in an 18-track package that seeks to transcend convention. In that sense, it shares a similar spirit with Andre 3000's The Love Below or Common's Electric Circus, with mixed results. Mos's reputation has been built on the strength of his lyrical charisma, and songs like "Close Edge," "Grown Man Business," and "Sunshine" show that his skills haven't faded just because he's Emmy-nominated. He's already proven that he can cut more than just street heat--best evinced on the soulful, poetic "Umi Says," a surprise hit from his previous release, 1999's Black on Both Sides. Yet, the rock- and blues-inspired songs here, while by no means poor, are acquired tastes, given their tendency to noodle--they simply can't compare with Mos's cutting verbal displays. The album's length and sometimes clunky sequencing can make for challenging listening, especially when so many of his more experimental cuts come early on. New fans might find the album's eclecticism intriguing, although older fans will likely be a bit perplexed. --Oliver Wang
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