the concept of mos def the ecstatic album

I’m not knocking it, but I have my mind on another type of prize. It’s machine-like how things are run now in hip-hop, and my ambitions are different. You have to experience life, make observations, and ask questions. I’m not trying to manipulate people’s thoughts or sentiments. There are so many things… I can’t control what people think. SR: I’m trying to figure out how we can convey that to young kids: How is being an artist different from being a product? If you’re necessary you’ll always be in people’s pocketsâ?something that functionsâ?well. If I’m not the hottest, then let me be vital. MD: I have plans to stick around, even when I’m not around anymore (laughing). It seems like your pacing yourself to avoid that. SR: Those people that you named seem really self-destructive, Hendrix and Coltrane. It’s not a means to collect the largest cheering section. African art is functional, it serves a purpose. MD: I like to have a good time and enjoy myself. I remember always seeing you in the beginning at a show in New York, and you were smiling the whole time, climbing up the walls and shit… SR: One of the things that I picked up from you personally is that if I’m not smiling while rapping, then I’m not doing my job. Even considering that, I’m doing it on a different level for myself. MD: People always say that to me and I never see it myself. SR: I feel like Kanye West has been influenced greatly by your work. Things are becoming clearer and clearer to me. With this album, I’m at this expansion point in my consciousness and my awareness. All of my albums are snapshots of where I am artistically. MD: I’m growing as an individual, but your always growing. This is your third solo album: How have you changed now? SR: You’ve been one of my biggest influences since I was 14, when I started rapping, and you’ve always put out something that doesn’t sound like anything else. When people ask my kids, “What did your pops do?” I want it to be like, “He got down like this, he did this.” And how this music will sound in 10 years. MD: This music has a long lasting positive impact on the world. I don’t rap like nobody, I don’t try to sound like nobody. I feel like I was the only person who was capable of making this type of music in this type of way. No one in hip-hop, before this point and to this point, with all due respect, has done this. I have no confidence issues with the impact or the quality of the music.

Also, I feel like being into the beat of your own drum has become too prominent in the culture. It’s not a super-defined narrative, its just raw… from a sincere place. SR: What are the main issues that you wanted to approach with this album? Ego aside, it’s just like, “Wow, that just happened.” It just happened to me, and it will happen to the world. I’m really proud of the song and feel blessed to have the opportunity to be the screen for that vibration, for that pass through on the world. And I let it be what it is and it’s fine. For instance, Jay, Black Thought, and Dave were down to be on the track, but I had to push them. I wanted to get other people on it, but everything in the universeâ?and I don’t want to sound esotericâ?has been pushing it to be my song. I wanted to get Jay Electronica, Black Thought, and Dave from De la Soul, but they were telling me that “Casa Forte” was a difficult cut to rhyme to. MD: Georgia Anne Muldrow, from Los Angeles. SR: Who are the collaborations on the album? SR: Are you playing a lot of the instruments on the album? Also, I looped that rhythm part, like the three times at the beginning. MD: I play the piano and the keys at the end. SR: But is this just you rapping over the straight song?

And I chose “Casa Bey” because that’s a family name, but this is after the recording of the song.

“Casa Forte” was too close to the original. MOS DEF: The original was called “Casa Forte,” which means “strong house.” And I wanted to call it “Casa Forte” because I wanted it to be as close to the original as possible, but the band, the dudes wanted me to come up with my own shit. Mos Def inspired Spank Rock since since he first heard him on De La Soul’s “Big Brother Beat,” and, says Spank Rock, “His unconditional love for music and community resonates with me to this day.” As they both are putting out new material second album, the seasoned artist’s words could not have come at a better time. After watching the video, he was sat down with Spank Rock, who’s currently finishing his second album with Downtown. His voice, which you might also recognize from his acting in Talledega Nights or Monster’s Ball, filled Downtown Records’ SOHO office as his team watched the first edit of his new video for the album’s single “Casa Bey.” “Casa Bey” samples “Casa Forte,” a 1977 song by Brazilian funk band Banda Black Rio. The Ecstatic is the appropriately titled, fourth solo album from one of Brooklyn’s finest MCs to ever release a song called “Bin Laden”: Mos Def.

The concept of mos def the ecstatic album