Video: Mos Def - Supermagic

Video: Mos Def - Supermagic

More and more, hip hop forgoes any notions of an album as a coherent whole, as a statement in and of itself. Instead, artists' write in favor of "the hit" single. However, Mos Def is amazing. And while that is a non-sequitur, his most recent album is not. Each song is creative and well carried out, varying in structure and length making for a very accomplished and dynamic listen. Among many other things, the album has rapping in spanish, lots of middle eastern sounding instrumentation, and a variety of subject matter giving it a sense of relevancy that goes way beyond sex, guns, and drugs. Although these things do make their appearances, it isn't always in the glorified way mainstream rap portrays them. I posted this Fallon performance a couple weeks ago, so here is a more constructed version of what Mos Def can do. The video is for the first song off the album is called "Supermagic" and does a lot to elaborate the sheer intensity of the song. Pretty much just Mos Def staring at you, spitting lyrics and coming at you. Its kind of terrifying until you realize he really looks like that guy from Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy...