So Ecstatic!

So, Justin has asked me to contribute once again to his blog after an approximately 10 month exile. Even though he has spent at least 8% of our friendship making fun of my iTunes, my task is to share good music with all 3 of his readers. The only problem is, there really has not been very good music being released lately, and Louis always posts the stuff that is worth listening to before the All-Cool Team even has a chance.
I was going to stick with the current theme of this blog and post Lil Wayne's lyrical fellatio of my least favorite superstar on my least favorite - albeit soon to be NBA champion - team. Couldn't do it. First of all, everyone has heard this by now. Second of all, no one (other than Lakers fans, who obviously have no business or reason to read this blog) really wants to hear that nonsense. The funny thing is, I thought that the song would have been a blessing in disguise for the Magic. I figured that Weezy was effectively breaking the 24 hour rule by sucking the "Rat" - as my Dad calls him when he makes that ridiculously stupid, comical face - off so close to game time. I guess that has not necessarily been the case, although Rat's 4th quarters have been pretty sub-par.

Anyways, back to music. There really is not a lot of excitement about any new worthwhile "summer" rap songs. Obviously, artists such as KiD CuDi, Drake, Wale, Mike Posner, etc. have done their thing so far this year, but there's been a lull of sorts for multiple weeks now. Having said that, I have spent a substantial amount of time lately listening to music that is far from mainstream. Specifically, I purchased the new Mos Def album, The Ecstatic, and came away impressed. Obviously, Mos is not a newcomer, nor is he some super underground artist. But, it's been a decent chunk of time since he made any ripples in the hip hop world. With that said, this CD is worth listening to all the way through. A lot of the songs are extremely short (between 1 and 3 minutes), but his flow is on point and the production is unique in that it samples a wide range of musical styles. It's refreshing to listen to rap where the lyrics carry some sort of meaning. My favorite song on the CD was:

Other high points included: History, Quiet Dog, Priority, and Life In Marvelous Times. I would mos def recommend giving this a listen.

Go FC Sounders!