Wikki-wikki-waaaahhhhhhh
Yo yo yo this is my 1st Album Review y'all. I'm a review my 5 favorite albums of all time. Here's #5. Hope you dig...
M-O-S-D-E-F-inately
Mos Def - Black on Both Sides - 1999
Well if I learned anything from this album in 1999, it was that new Hip Hop didn't have to eat taint. Way back in 1999, the city I lived in had posters for this album all over the place - bus stops, train stations, etc. Mos was new to me, but I bought the piece cause with that many posters, ish had to be good, right?
I didn't know much about Mighty Mos at the time but that would all change mad soon. I was young and the hip hop I liked in the 90s, like Wu Tang and Tupac, had somehow turned into garbage like DMX and Ja Rule. The new ish was crazy wack and I was too young to know any better. Thank you Mos Def for changing that.
Here's a sample of some of the illest Lyrics off the record....
From "Got":
Like, come on now ock, what you expect?
Got a month's paycheck danglin' off your neck
And while you Cristal sippin', they rubbin' up they mittens
With heat in mint condition to start the getti-gettin'
They clique starts creepin' like Sandinistin guerrillas
You screamin' playa haters, these niggas is playa killers
Got a month's paycheck danglin' off your neck
And while you Cristal sippin', they rubbin' up they mittens
With heat in mint condition to start the getti-gettin'
They clique starts creepin' like Sandinistin guerrillas
You screamin' playa haters, these niggas is playa killers
From "Know That":
Yesterday was not for me but nowaday it's time for me
The streets is watchin me, I watch back, that's the policy
Movin along my oddesey like blood through the artery
Navigate the treacherous and make it seem effortless
The streets is watchin me, I watch back, that's the policy
Movin along my oddesey like blood through the artery
Navigate the treacherous and make it seem effortless
From "Speed Law":
Black steel in the hour
Assemble my skill form my power
My poems crush bones into powder
You mumble like a coward
I'm Mos Def, you need to speak louder
Assemble my skill form my power
My poems crush bones into powder
You mumble like a coward
I'm Mos Def, you need to speak louder
I gotta admit that last one is my favorite. I've heard that song a million times and I still gets the mf'ing chills everytime. Just listening to it so I could write this ish made me long for the simpler days of 1999.
As a kid back then Mos' lyrics were over my head and I definitely got off on that. I digged that like crazy. It wasn't gansta rap but it was hype. The ish was intelligent and I was not. But I thought I was so this joint fit me like a glove.
******Wikki-wikki-waaahhhhhhh*******
OK, so this review had more to do with my personal reasons for digging on the record but what can I tell you. I'm a write what I know. Bottom line: tight beats, ridiculous flow, creative as hell.
And as a special treat, here's a clip of a quick freestyle by the Man himself...
Peace
