The dude wants us to be as enamored with his vocal stylings as he is, but it ain’t happening. Unfortunately, the trend of experimentation and various vocal turns other than rhyming (call it Andre 3000 syndrome) continues to be a disheartening trend on “True Magic,” as Mos spends inordinate amounts of time crooning, cooing, mumbling, jive-talking and chanting, while only dropping a handful of wall-to-wall verbal beatdowns or stories. Things start promising enough with the DJ Epik-produced title track, where it sounds like the Black Dante is practically sleep-walking through his lyric sheet, which comes off as either effortless or lazy but still beats 90% of other MCs best stuff. And so it goes with Mos’ newest joint, a terribly packaged (no liner notes of even back cover) collection of slightly flawed, occasionally satisfying and fleetingly brilliant moments that hint at something rapturous and well known but never quite materialize into transcendence. No man is without flaws, just as no MC can live up to the impossible standards of a savior. But like Snoop after “Doggystyle” and Nas after “Illmatic,” we (and he) can never go back from whence we came. But despite all the frustration, we still remember ’99, when we knew this cat just had that special something to save us all (despite how ridiculous Hip Hop needing a savior was and still is). For most rappers, a decade without satisfying product is a slump on par with my man Mauer going hitless for an entire season—no coming back from that shit. The significant missteps of the release (beat-jacking again with “The Rape Over”!) didn’t help either, and yet he still showed enough of that original ‘true magic’ to keep us hoping for the emcee we wanted and needed Mos to be.īut now it’s 2007, damn near a decade since Mos has brought a classic to the table.
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But waiting more than five years to bless us again, and then with an erratic release notable more for its experimentation rather than genius, caused some of that gilded shine to crack off. By the time “The New Danger” rolled around, many had forgotten what the fuss was about in the first place, but we still remembered. We still forgave him, for his forays into acting and extended absence from the mic (cause a brother with that much charisma deserves the silver screen), and even later for his largely awful fixation with rock-rap (Jack Johnson), which recalled the even worse Ice-T pet project Body Count. Yet as time went by, the quirks became traits. We even forgave him his faults (which seemed more like quirks back then), like the face-slap hypocrisy of critiquing rap producing biters over Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story” (as well as lyrically jacking Rakim and BDP in time), because, well, at least it was dope and well-chosen aping. The classic “Black on Both Sides” simply added further confirmation that this cat here was what we hoped Nas would be (forget that Nas was hoped to be the new Rakim), an emcee with the total package of god-like perspective and mind-blowing talent. By the time Black Star dropped, it felt more like a movement than an album release, as the duo (and their label Rawkus) seemed to represent all that was pure and good about our music. Back before most saw a problem, he appeared on De La’s slept-on “Stakes is High” as a next generation son of the Native Tongues. Note: When you embed the widget in your site, it will match your site's styles (CSS).Despite the ravages of time and sporadic activity on his part, many of us older underground cats still remember a time when the Mighty Mos was going to single-handedly resurrect Hip Hop back in the mid to late 90s, saving it from the tinny excess of shiny suits and Master P grunts.
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Get the embed code Mos Def - True Magic Album Lyrics1.A Ha2.Crime & Medicine3.Dollar Day4.Fake of a Teenage Life7.Perfect Timing8.UndeniableMos Def Lyrics provided by Say ichiban, me God man bo where you hitting fromīut God willing I'm coming back to you back to you
They celebrate to my jams in foreign lands Move around city limits, break 'em down with the vinitage The new jacks up in the parks smoking greeneryĮasily take it for granted when you up in itīut it's sweet scented, when you been down for a minute
The old timers on the stoop leaning leisurely My hometown is like a whole different scenery My baby girl is walking, been away for that longīut no you haven't well at least that's how it seem to me To drop these heavy ass bags up off my back boneĪround the world with a catalogue of rap songs While you start climbing in 'em, I start shining We both on assignment, to unearth the diamond the blue collar workerĬause this thing called rhyming, no different from coal mining These cats is paying more than half a poundĪin't got the skate, but we can probably run it back in townįor the modern emcee, ie. The call heard around the world from the wives of MCs
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