Mos Def aka Yasiin Bey has been through some SHIT.
The Ex-Patriot, kente cloth skirt wearing, voluntary feeding tube MC has had an interesting few years. The guy who made Black On Both sides and rapped in Dave Chappelle's car has grown to a hyper level of wokeness.
Like he's at "I'd vote for Donald Trump because the presidency is a joke" level woke. Not gonna lie I'm a little scared.
However I remember back in 2008 I saw him do Umi Says live and that moment will stay with me forever so I decided to give his surprise final album a shot.
Ok so December 99th is...different. There's lots of snaps and bird noises. Idk why they're there but I guess it represents what he's going through even though sound like an Improv class exercise.
I get that rappers go through periods of being disillusioned with their art form but not everyone can pull off the singing shit. T-Pain and Cee-Lo are the only two who could make it work. But T-Pain is a musical prodigy and Cee-Lo is a possible date rapist who thinks sleeping is "explicit consent". Mos Def isn't either one of these gentlemen so his singing comes off kind of stilted.
Mos is better at singing when he's in a good head space, kinda like a guy singing to a girl on the phone to get laid. His singing now just seems painful, like a guy singing in prison cuz his cellmate forced him.
This is music you listen to crying after got caught stealing at Trader Joe's.
Overall this is a very strange tape. Like this is beyond "no line up music" this is like "my dreads are dirty" music. I don't know what Mos Def has seen in his recent years but I hope he can find peace. Til that happens I gotta give this 5 torn du-rags out of 10.