The title promises more than the track delivers. The beat’s too big to be electronic — it’s like an adrenalized Bobby Digital. Music that thick doesn’t sound right to me unless there’s a sense of real muscle going into it. And there’s no thirst in the vocals. I loved Mos Def, the fighter for consciousness in hip hop; Mos Def the star still makes good but not great music. I didn’t like everything he did with live instruments but I would’ve liked to see him go further in that direction. He’s not a bad singer either. He could do something truly new if he didn’t mind making some disastrously experimental records and putting the acting career on hold for a couple of years… Or maybe I should wait until the album drops. Btw, they’re explicitly marketing the release date as election day, November 4. Mos is still a vocal catalyst for social change, but I’m still waiting for a truly powerful and original statement in music to that affect — from anybody — to represent how marvelous these times really are.
… or maybe my standards are just getting way too high — like my TV standards.
