The New Danger

by

Mos Def

Edit

Let's be honest and say this off the bat. Black on Both Sides was a Hip-Hop classic. The New Danger is an experimental album, showing creative genius far from what you expect out of hip-hop. The album was primarily recorded with Black Jack Johnson, Mos Def's all black rock band. In fact the title of the album was supposed to be named that until the other Jack Johnson became popular. This album will surprise you, Mos Def fan or not.

The album starts off with the soulful poetic "Boogie Man Song." Fans can expect something along the lines of "Climb" from Black on Both Sides. "Freaky Black Geetings" is a rock/funk song, with barely any vocals from Mos. He doesn't rap or sing on this one, just kinda sounds like he's jamming out to the music. "Ghetto Rock" is a hard bass thumping track with distorted guitars. Mos raps on this one, but it's more rock-rap than hip-hop. The lyrics aren't too challenging, nor is the flow, but the song still is nice. "Zimzallabim" is just a straight up rock song with Mos rapping over it.

You might be wondering at this point where are all the straight up hip-hop tracks on a supposedly hip-hop album?? Finally Mos gives those fans what they want, although it's a bit disappointing once you here the opening of the "Rape Over". You'll be quick to note it's basically a remake of the first verse to Jay-Z's "The Takeover". The exact same beat, the flow and lyrics are meant to match and play off Jay's song also. Plus it's only a minuet and a half. This song really should have been left to a mixtape, it's not really original and certainly falls short for the first rap track. "Blue Black Jack" borrows a Muddy Water's guitar riff and attempts the whole Blues genre. (If you haven't noticed the track titles are all too descriptive of the song). The next track is more of a laid back, jam session again containing little vocals by Mos Def. "Sex, Love & Money" is a bass thumping, concert featuring what feels like a full orchestra! Mos Def drops a rap here showing off a real nice flow on this one.

"Sunshine" finally shows off the Hip-Hop in Mos Def. From the opening you'll just know Kanye West produced this one. A nice track, with some solid lyrics, but the two have done better together. "Close Edge" you might recognize from his spot on "Chappelle's Show" from season one. Mos drops some really nice conscious lyrics, although the track is really over-produced with background sounds. Still a solid track. Mos Def get's back on the Soul tip with "The Panties" which uses some violen samples with a subtle electric guitar and eventually some bass. "War" is pretty self explanatory as far as the subject matter, has several tracks of Mos's vocals chanting together the lyrics. About halfway through the song the beat changes into a hard rock song similar to the second half of "Rock & Roll" from his first album.

The next track is all too similar to "The Rape Over" as Mos Def & new-comer Minnesota rap over Nas's "No Idea's Original"... it's good, but you still just feel kinda like your listening to a mixtape with this one. Speaking of Minnesota, he handles a solid chunk of the production on this album (You might remember seeing his first production credits on Ghostface's Pretty Tony Album). With these two recycled tracks it makes you upset that unreleased tracks like "What's Beef?" wasn't put on here instead.

"Modern Marvel" has Mos again coming back to soul and appropriately singing over Marvin Gaye samples of Flyin' High & What's Going On. Mos kick some raps on the second half of the track taking the Marvin Gaye theme to the next level, asking What would Marvin think if he could see today? This is a powerful track and certainly one of the best. Following is another classic "Life Is Real" produced by Molecules. Now this is what most of you were expecting from this album. On the same page as Black on Both Sides, yet a step-up. A great sample and some real deep lyrics on this track.

"The Easy Spill" sounds like it has to have been recorded live, it's another rock track. This one gets a bit more repetitive than the other rock tracks. Chances are you'll want to skip it to check out the "The Beggar" which is a combination of Soul with the elements of a rock ballad. If you're familiar with Cody Chesnutt (wrote and sang The Roots' "The Seed", it's really similar to one of his tracks. One of the better tracks.

The album ends on a similar note to his last, with an 88 Keys track. This time, Mos Def raps over the beat, sounding more like a track on his last album. Excellent way to end the album, bringing it home with a solid hip-hop track.

I'll be honest, this was not what I was looking for at all. So, people be warned cause you'll get blown away. This is a creative experimental album, and in that sense comes off as a pretty solid effort, however it still is missing something. The music quality is really good (Mos Def can actually sing, unlike Andre 3000). I was a little dissapointed because I was waiting for a follow up to his last album for five years, but what you get is completely different. If you like N.E.R.D. or Cody ChesnuTT, chances are you'll enjoy this effort too. If you're looking for a Black on Both Sides follow up, as I was, you might have to wait another five years.

In the sense of a pure hip-hop album you might be disappointed. But, if you like good music no matter what kind of genre it is, you'll be satisfied with this album, it has almost every genre you could think of.

I'ma try to keep this review short and sweet for the true Hip-Hop heads out there. Mos Def's new album "The New Danger" is really an album that has fallen victim to the deadly sophomore slump jinx. And I'm an avid Heavy Metal, Punk, and Classic Rock fan as well. I know how to distinguish the art. Mos makes a feeble attempt to experiment this time with a project that consists of an album with 70% Rock & Roll and some psuedo punk music. Why wasn't this album titled "The Black Jack Johnson featuring Mos Def", is the question that you should ask yourself. The major label that B.J.J. was signed to, didn't have enough faith in the group so they shelved their debut album for the last 2 and a half years. So Mos Def, eager to let the world feel his rock group just takes his B.J.J. tracks and stuffs them all over his Solo album with the Mos Def title on it and forces it down your throat. Let's be real here for a sec. Who in the world was expecting this? I wasn't shocked at all when I heard Andre's "The Love Below". We expected something like that from Dre, and you know what? It worked. But this attempt to be avant-garde in Mos Def's case just dosen't work, much like how The Roots' lackluster "Phrenology" and "Electric Circus" from Common failed to gain acceptance from the core Hip-Hop audience. Too many people are quick to waive fair criticism just because you hear a couple of guitars in the background. That does not make the project a success when someone that's known for one thing does something out of the ordinary. To be honest, this should have been released as a side project, rather than a Mos Def solo album. Making an experimental Hip-Hop album does take a lot of balls, considering how closed minded most Hip-Hoppers are, but in the same regard an experimental album has to be done right with no mistakes. De La Soul's "3 Ft. High and Rising" pulled it off, It worked for Andre 3000 with the forementioned "The Love Below", The Beastie Boys with "Paul's Botique", Ultramagnetic MC's with "Critical Beatdown" and a few other artists' albums under the radar such as Prince Paul with his "Psychoanalysis" album.

Unfortunately "The New Danger" honestly dosen't break much new ground. I disagree with those that say that this album will grow on you with time. That's such a cliche' thing to say. Mos Def's debut album gave us so many important concepts and ideas with a backdrop that complimented his style. Some of the albums songs where he's actually rhyming such as "The Rape Over" and "Grown Man Business" are both slick and clever but both of these cuts sound like mixtape material. Black Jack Johnson isn't really much of an impressive rock band either. They're decent but nothing to go slap your moms about. Kanye West's "Sunshine" is an extremely mediocre and bland track that just dosen't succeed at all. The song lacked definition and energy. Kanye's definitely starting to become more and more redundant and over-rated the more I listen to his stuff now.

On a positive note a few of the songs on this album and only a few... are bangers, such as "Ghetto Rock", "Close Edge", "Sex, Love, and Money" and "The Boogie Man Song" actually remind us of the Mos Def of old.

So those of you who think "The New Danger" is a genius/classic album, you need to seriously wake up. It's obvious alot of these folks haven't listened to much punk, heavy metal, blues, or rock to begin with to make that judgement. Take it from a "TRUE" Hip-Hop junkie this is one of the year's biggest dissapointments, burn this one before you fork over that moolah like i did. Spend your money on the sleepers like the Foreign Exchange album and Masta Ace's latest one.