Rollin’ & Scratchin’

Mos Def was one of the first hip hop artists I was drawn to growing up as a white suburbanite kid in Toronto. It was a part of the whole ‘underground hip-hop’ mentality everyone was drawn to in the mid to late 90’s. Shit, if I had known that my favourite so-called ‘underground rapper’ would move on to star in movies and Broadway productions, I probably would’ve disowned this Brooklyn-based MC right then and there. But I grew up, and such fickle ideas and fairy tales of ’selling-out’ just don’t faze me anymore. I mean shit, he’s actually a pretty good actor (not including his most recent performance with Jack Black in ‘Be Kind Rewind’).

That being said, Mos Def has been pretty quiet on the music front of late. Nevertheless, he’s had time to release a new single for us to jam to called ‘Life In Marvelous Times’. This go around, he’s hopped on the electro train like so many rappers before him, enlisting the production services of Ed Banger’s, Mr. Flash. This isn’t the first time Mos has teamed up with electronic producers. Back in 2002, he teamed up with Massive Attack for the Blade II soundtrack for ‘I Against I’. Both killer tracks, but you be the judge as to which you like better.

Mos Def – Life In Marvelous Times (Prod. Mr. Flash)

November 13th, 2008 by Craig