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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Timeless Hip Hop, April 27, 2004
I agree with the other reviewer, "Black on Both Sides" is easily in the Top Five Hip Hop albums of all time. From the intro, Mos Def eases the listener into the concept of Hip Hop with "Fear not of Man". His spiritual approach is reminiscent of early A Tribe Called Quest. However, his style is his own. "Ms. Fat Booty", the popular single, is perhaps the worst song on the album, and it's a great song. It's story telling fun recalls Slick Rick at his best. "Mathematics", with his direct analyzation of the facts of life could easily have been a Guru episode. The instrumental tracks are delicious as well.The album simply does not go wrong. "Rock and Roll" is a monumental track that probably disturbed his following of suburban Caucasians but it was essential to the album's concept. Relating to the true meaning of the title itself,"Black On Both Sides." The album is progressive, approachable, and intelligent. If I can compare it to any other Hip Hop album I'd have to say the underated ahead of its time "Blowout Comb" by Digable Planets. Which he sampled from on this album. Now that Mos Def has proven that he is indeed the Master of Ceremony, the world is waiting for him to show us how far ahead of us he actually is with the Black Jack Johnson Band he's been touring with for the past few years. I own everything he's released, seen all his films, seen him on Broadway performing "TopDog UnderDog", and seen him in concert several times. Being from Brooklyn myself I feel like he is the best representative of what Hip Hop is and what it can be. 'Nuff respect to the Mighty Mos Def. But...what's good with his new album? When is he gonna bless us with a new joint? Remember Mos, Umi said shine your light on the world. Shine Brethren, shine.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Five all time Hip Hop Albums, April 6, 2004
If you're like me and you love to sit around and think of your "Top 5" albums of all time in different genres and such, then you will love Mighty Mos' debut solo effort. If you have a life and you don't sit around thinking of your top 5 albums then you're still likely to love it.
This album is so important to me because it doesn't necessarily rely on amazing production to make each track listenable. Mos Def has one of the most listenable voices EVER - his flow is tight, he's funny, socially conscious, passionate and creative. His nasal voice works so well with the production that it rolls off the boom bap like it was part of the beat.
That's not to say that this album has wack production. Speaking in April 2004 anyone who doesn't know Kanye West lives in a cave, wearing earmuffs and a blindfold. This is where I first heard from 'Ye, who produced the hot to death single Ms. Fat Booty and a couple other jams. Habitat is another track that stand out among the rest, as Mos is at his best with jawdropping flow and a really uplifting napsack-friendly beat.
While Mos Def still teases us with speculation of a sophore album dropping sometime soon, go get this album before you realize that one of the most important emcees in the game passed under your nose. Talib may be the better-known half of Blackstar, but Mos deserves just as much attention because this album's bananas and it's a must-have for so-called conscious hip hop heads.
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17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not Kweli good, but still better than 99% of hip-hop..., February 6, 2003
I have always listened to all music including hip-hop, but the late nineties saw the end of creativity in rap. It became find a guy with tattoos and/or gold teeth and tell him to play into all negative sterotypes placed on black people. Even worse is that main stream America bought it and we wound up with a radio full of songs with slightly varied ways of saying "Women are sex toys, I drink expensive champagne, , and check out my diamonds). So just when I was going to write off hip-hop as dead a friend of mine made me listen to a song that turned out to be "The Blast" by Talib Kweili. So I bough Reflection eternal, and then the same friend said if I liked that I should also check out another MC named Mos Def. I went out and bought and sure enough it turns out real hip-hop isn't dead, but rather just forced to the underground by image selling record labels. This album has some inspired tracks on it, Mathematics, Fear Not Man, Umi Says, Clime, and Know That. The rest are all very good, and the album is a must for anyone who apreciates the power of real hip-hop. I also will say this about Mos Def, he has the best chance of having mainstream success with underground style hip-hop because he seems to have a very media friendly personality, but lyrically I say Kweli is on another level. Look at it like this BlackStar is like if the Beatles had just been John and Paul, Kweli would be John and Mos Def would be Paul. Kweli(John) is the more deep and inciteful song writer, where as Mos(Paul) is a very good writer, but better and merging accepted pop elements in the music.
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