Well, I'm back again. Two posts in one day maybe, it's a burst of energy. Just a few minutes ago I posted my confusion about Black College Football Experience and now I'm moving on to new territory. The man on the left is Andre 3000 and the game to the right is Mass Effect. Both of them are candidates for the greatest of all time in their respective areas. Andre 3-Stacks has always been an eclectic lyricist from Atlanta sporting flawless rhymes and sporadic but brilliant verses on his own. Mass Effect is Bioware's flagship franchise game, away from the confines of Star Wars and George Lucas, but maintaining a space worthy theme. You know what would be sweet? If they added Sun Crushers into Mass Effect. It would be a total bloodbath full of oblivion, but it would be amazing nonetheless.

I bring those two up because I have to give them both credit where credit it due: masterful storytelling. This isn't about Andre 3000 so I won't put the spot light on him, but his storytelling is nearly unparalleled in hip hop, rivaled only by a few and even a few of them are slipping (*cough* Jay-Z *cough*), but Mass Effect, being an RPG, has mastered this art to another extent.

Quick show of hands: who has played the first Mass Effect? My right hand is up right now. Now it's down. There weren't many games the year it came out that I ordered to be delivered to me. Only the best are reserved for that... the best and those I can't afford to go out and get in person. I heard it was of Bioware, those behind Knights of the Old Republic, and played it. I had a heart attack. I'm one of the advocates of "Gaming is Art" so you give me a sexy sci-fi story with memorable characters and truly game affecting decisions and what do you have? One of the greatest stories in gaming.

My character was Sheppard, as all are. I can't remember his first name (it doesn't help that my Xbox is broken and I can't check) but he was a pure soldier. He wasn't tied down with the specifics of electronics and biotic warfare. He was a strategist and a weapon master, using pistols and shotguns, assault rifles and sniper rifles to the fullest, as well as grenades. Before the game he was a punk on the streets of Earth (Detroit I'm assuming) running with gangs until the military caught up with him and straightened him out. He did some stuff and gained a sparkling reputation, being chosen for a mission to a new colony planet. He didn't mess up but he was blamed for it. Then he was chosen for a new mission to save the galaxy with his crew, and even sparked up a romance with one of his crew mates, culminating with sexual intercourse following bouts of attraction and depression brought about by the death of a fellow friend. They saved the galaxy but left to do stuff, and by stuff I mean more saving. That's a terrible synopsis but it's the truth. The story make even sound a bit standard, but I left out a number of details, outside references and clever dialogue, not to mention the thresher maws. Oh, those thresher maws... glad they don't exist, that's all I can say.

What separates this story, however, is the sequel game, aptly titled Mass Effect 2. What's the story behind that one? So far I have no idea. I know that there's a new planet and that there are a few new features but I don't know the story. I saw the ship from the first game getting destroyed but I don't know the story. There is a skeleton tale in the game I'm sure, a basic outline, but outside of that you determine the story. You know how I mentioned Andre 3000 early on? He's a master storyteller. All of his guest verses are stories, be they greatly detailed or somewhat soupy. Example: take his verse from International Player's Anthem. It went...

So, I typed a text to a girl I used to see
Sayin that I chose this cutie pie with whom I wanna be
And I apologize if this message gets you down
Then I CC'd every girl that I'd see see round town and
I hate to see y'all frown but I'd rather see her smiling
Wetness all around me, true, but I'm no island
Peninsula maybe, makes no sense I know, crazy
Give up all this pussy cat that's in my lap no lookin back
Spaceships dont come equipped with rear view mirrors
They dip as quick as they can
The atmosphere is now ripped
I'm so like a Pip, I'm glad its night
So the light from the sun would not burn me on my bum
When I shoot the moon high, jump the broom
Like a preemie out the womb
My partner yellin "Too soon! Don't do it! Reconsider!
Read some litera - ture on the subject
You sure? Fuck it
You know we got your back like chiroprac - tic
If that bitch do you dirty
we'll wipe her ass out as in detergent
Now hurry hurry, go on to the altar
I know you ain't a pimp but pimp remember what I taught ya
Keep your heart 3 stacks, keep your heart
Aye, keep your heart 3 stacks, keep your heart
Man, these girls is smart, 3 stacks, these girls is smart
Play your part
Play your part

That's a story in itself. It gave the entire song a storyline. Mass Effect 2 looks to do the same. Andre's verse laid down a skeleton and let the listener go from there. Bioware laid a skeleton with the first game and now you have to make your own destiny in the new installment. This is a big deal for me because Sheppard can die for good, and Mass Effect is a trilogy.

What? Lose your main character in the game he or she is the main character or? DiZ, you orgasmic chocolate chip, perish the thought! No, I will not. There's a chance he can die. Every choice you make has a consequence and a reward. Do I know anything about these choices? No, but I'm guessing that pushing a man out of a window and thirty stories onto pure concrete isn't a nice thing to do in any respect at all.

The purpose of this post was to give props to the masterful storytelling of Bioware, creators of such games as KOTOR and Jade Empire. Keep up the good work and I'll be sure to be getting Mass Effect 2 when it comes out, word. Peace.

I have no prior bias to any game I play, but I can't help but force myself to keep from that bias when it comes to Nerjyzed Entertainment's past and future debut Black College Football Experience, the first game from their company and the first game to ever feature nothing but HBCUs. As the title goes this is a football game. It combines, at least now it does, football and Rock Band, in that the game before and after half time is pure football and the half time is... a rhythm based mini game compatible with the Rock Band drum peripheral, a nod to the tradition of HBCU bands doing performances at half time. I've seen gameplay footage from both the game released in 2007 and the one to be released on Tuesday and my first impression is a big resounding, "It's aight..."

Let's get this out the way early: I have low expectations for many, maybe even all at this point, football games. When Electronic Arts took the license for themselves I said that it was time to witness the slow descent of football games, and in my opinion I've been dead right. I've seen a decline in quality in the Madden games and I've seen no real change in the NCAA Football games. That 2K games football title featuring all legends and false characters was okay, but it wasn't ESPN NFL 2K5. Midway's Blitz series is always good for a laugh, but its gameplay isn't stern enough and it doesn't come out every year like the EA monsters do. That's good if only because it means they don't recreate the same game each year, but that's just a gripe of mine. Anyway, I saw the gameplay for Black College Football Experience from 2007 and I said, "It's aight..." It looks functional and has a bit of a "Mr. Magoo" visual feel to it (the main attraction looks well enough but the secondary details themselves are lacking, especially the crowd) but that's no reason to down a game. After all, 2K5 did the same... well, Madden did that and... nope, on second thought they didn't.
A big selling point appears to be Doug Williams and the half time mini game. Personally I have no idea who Doug Williams is, but I'm assuming he's a professional (current or retired) that went to an HBCU. I respect that. I suspect the target audience will too. The mini game is an interesting feature too, something I haven't been able to even convince a permanent fault with outside of multiple controls for a single exhibition game, but that's just a pet peeve. Basically it's like the movie Drumline, without the bad acting of Nick Cannon, Leonard Roberts, Orlando Jones, Jason Weaver... you see where I'm going with this. You hit the drum kit in tune with the thing on the screen. What's my big deal with it? The Rock Band drum instrument goes in the color order: red, yellow, blue, green. The game goes: blue, green, yellow, red. Seems like a purely aesthetic thing, right? Maybe not. It's a simple change I'm sure, but I'll let time determine how all that works out. It'll kind of suck doing that kind of mini game on a standard controller.

[Quick sidebar: if I seem a little pissed off right now it's because my Xbox has been out of commission for more than a month now and it has me pretty upset, especially with what I've seen of Mass Effect 2. I'll be touching on that game in a little while myself. Whatever...]

I haven't yet touched on why this post is called "Varied Confusion". When I first heard about this game I said, "Let's hear the racist comments." Of course, those are what I saw. I guess I can kind of anticipate how some people are thinking, but I don't know exactly how to feel about the game in and of itself. On one hand I'm happy that there's a tribute to the black college football experience. Being a student of now two HBCUs and a predominantly black high school I can say that going to a football game is indeed an experience. Then again, having no other kind of college football experience to compare it to I can't say how necessary a game like this is.

Necessity is something I've been on lately. My latest foray into it was with a rapper named Edo G. He did a song in the 90s with Da Bulldogs called "Be a Father to Your Child" and I couldn't help but acknowledge how necessary this song is. The conflict comes with the fact that this song shouldn't have to be necessary. That's why I'm confused with this game. Yes, this game is a tribute to a culture a lot of people will never experience, but that's part of the discrepancy to me: aren't games a method of reaching people of all kinds? Maybe not, but the goal of this game is to appeal to the HBCU crowd. How many HBCU students are going to buy a game they can pretty much watch every week in the fall semester? How many football players for schools like Morehouse or Hampton are inclined to buy a game that showcases them in a generic light (generic meaning no specific mention to specific players outside of Doug Williams, not a crack at the game I have yet to play) and why? If I played football at Morehouse when I was there I would have bought this game only for the purpose of a grudge with another school (probably Tuskegee).

To this same token, however, if I'm following this logic, then the necessity of any kind of college football game is unnecessary. I don't like college football games because A)they all owned by EA and B)EA clones Madden and makes a killing. It's a shameful reason I admit but the third reason was that my college, which was Morehouse, wasn't on them before. Now Morehouse is on an HBCU football game (a moot point since now I'm at Clark Atlanta University) and I can't express total joy because I'm struck with hundreds of questions. I can't put down everything now but I'll be sure to when I give the game a play through. Catch ya later.

[P.S. -- I found out who Doug Williams is. To date he's the only African American quarterback to win a Super Bowl. That's significant and all I guess, but shit... okay, he is kind of a big deal. Super Bowl MVP and he broke a few records. I tip my hat to you, Doug Williams.]

A friend of mine put it rather well when he said that the Holy Trinity of Neo-Soul (D'Angelo, Maxwell and Erykah Badu (I want to say Son, Holy Spirit and Father respectively but don't quote me)) was again in effect when Maxwell's new single, Pretty Wings, dropped. I find myself both agreeing and disagreeing, if only because I think the "divinity" of neo-soul includes the "Prince on ecstasy" voiced Bilal. Regardless, in his review he gave this album a 4 out of 5, citing its length as the main, maybe even sole, reason he didn't give the album a perfect 5. It's not my style to take anyone's word outside of my own when it comes to music so I went to the store and bought the CD (a MAJOR sign of respect from me) and gave it a couple of listens. My assessment? Well...

Maxwell has always been my third favorite neo-soul singer, falling after Bilal at the number two spot and Erykah Badu as the queen for reasons going far beyond the realm of music. He had me sold and nearly claimed the number two spot with the song "Fortunate", off of the Life soundtrack. That song still receives a lot of replay in my musical profiles. I didn't really get into his previous work but I was mad impressed with what I stumbled across. He was always mysterious, considering he wrote his own song and didn't let R. Kelly do it (talking about Fortunate again) and his lyrics bordered between salt-of-the-earth and edge-of-the-galaxy, and sometimes you didn't know just what the hell he was talking about. To me, then and now, that was the essence of neo-soul: multiple meanings in the most lunatic of songs, poetry over soulful beats, courtly love in a desirable manner. The Soulquarians were/are pure neo-soul. Maxwell wasn't a part of that. That's why I'm not as mad as I could be that BLACKsummers'night is disappointing as a neo-soul album.

Hear me out. On a whole I love this album, not as much as I love something like Baduizm or 1st Born Second, but the distinction between those two to this is that those two are neo-soul; BLACKsummers'night is R&B. Maxwell comes out the gate with the guitar-laced Bad Habits and croons about the hardest parts of a relationship and drifts right into Cold, the story about the cold blooded woman we all know. Pretty Wings, my new second favorite Maxwell song, is the same old subject matter but he puts a twist on it and does the song so well I can forgive it. It's just a great song, no more or less.

Help Somebody is interesting in that it's more along the lines of What's Going On? Marvin Gaye in its meaning. Stop the World shares in that distinction too, though its meaning is a little more divided and Maxwell comes across as a little braggadocios. Love You and Fistful of Tears are accidental nods to Keith Sweat; Maxwell isn't exactly begging but he is pleading rather strongly, apologizing to a girl and working towards a second chance. Playing Possum, more so because of the band than the lyrics themselves, hold the silver medal in songs on the album because of how masterfully the trumpet is played. Otherwise he's still in Keith Sweat mode.

The last track is a serious break from the norm; Phoenix Rise is a pure instrumental, a chance for Maxwell's ingenious band to shine. It's a pleasant way to end the album, although the song sounds a bit too electric in the beginning and feels too New Jack Swing for my R&B or neo-soul tastes throughout, but it's still nice.

It sounds like I'm just griping about the album and not giving it any props whatsoever. I give this album a 3.85 out of 5 on a scale of 1 to 5 for two reasons. The first reason is the driving force behind the music, the band. I have no idea who Maxwell tapped for this project (I'd know if I had the CD case nearby but I don't feel like going to the car this late) but on every song they hit it out of the park. It was first notable on Pretty Wings but they really shine, alongside Maxwell's voice that is (Phoenix Rise is their time to do it solo and they do it well) is Fistful of Tears. They aren't just a good match for Maxwell's voice; they're a nearly flawless match.

Reason two for the score is the shift. I said earlier that this wasn't neo-soul; it was R&B. As poetic as Maxwell is the band he can attribute so much positive influence to keeps the sound very R&B and even occasionally electronic. Maxwell himself doesn't vary up his subject matter enough to break the mold exponentially and even if you break down the genres this album falls into (neo-soul, R&B and "funk") its still a bit discombobulated.

When I first heard about the band behind Maxwell's newest venture I thought about my favorite album of all time, Hot Buttered Soul by Isaac Hayes and his band. I say Issac Hayes and his band because they own that album just as much Isaac Hayes did. While it was only four tracks long the band took over 80% of the first track, 80% of the second, 15% of the fourth and they were in total sync, the band and the late great Mr. Hayes, on the epic final track. They were in perfect sync the entire way but when I heard BLACKsummers'night I expected something along the same lines. This is not a criticism so much as an expectation. If anything it bumped my score up from 3.5 to 3.85 because BLACKsummers'night is part one of a trilogy and I have a feeling that blackSUMMERS'night is going to be more of what I wanted and blacksummers'NIGHT will be the new Hot Buttered Soul. I know I'm aiming a bit high here and putting a bit of pressure on Maxwell but he's been pushing for that number two spot of my top neo-soul singers list since Fortunate and by all accounts this LP sound have done the deed.

While he won't dethrone Erykah Badu's fine ass anytime soon he's still carrying the bronze in my book and that's adequate. This album is good, real good, but he switched it up a little too much with a little too much warning. I can't complain, however, because this is the best R&B album I've heard in a long time. I can't wait until next year's blackSUMMERS'night so I can enjoy yet another dose of good music from what my friend calls "part of the Neo-Soul Holy Trinity."

Rating: 3.85 out of 5

Well, what can we say about the film company known as Pixar? We can say they have a lock on the 3D CGI film market. We can say they have something of a formula for good movies down. We can say that since Shrek came out they've been on a roll, gathering no moss and not slowing down. In fact, with Toy Story 3 around the corner, it could be said that they're ahead of many film companies. As a matter of fact, I'll say that this movie I'm reviewing today is arguably my favorite CGI movie ever. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING, will take away the whimsical joy I get when I watch Spirited Away, but that's for another review.

Yes, Pixar can say they have a lot, but after this movie they can also say that have Edward Asner. If you don't know Edward Asner he's a legendary actor and voice actor. For the more modern crowd you may remember him as the voice for The Boondocks rich man Ed Wuncler, Sr. He's the stocky bald guy that befriends Robert Free-Man, funds Robert's death dealing restaurant, and turns Tom's daughter into a slave. For the older folk you may remember him as Lou Grant, of the Mary Tyler Moore Show and the spin off featuring his character's name. Me, I remember him best as Cosgrove from the short lived Freakazoid! And now this movie...

Up is a movie about an old man that wants to be an adventurer. It was his dream from being a kid, and luckily this dream was shared by a young girl he would soon encounter. They'd share similar dreams and get married, how nice. To say anymore would ruin the movie a bit. So on to the main plot. The old man flies to South America with his house, suspended by thousands of balloons, and accidentally has a stowaway. They reach their destination, almost hit the mark but miss it by a few miles, and start the journey. He comes the bird, then the talking dog, and finally the main antagonist. See, movies are hard to review because you can't go into the plot while reviewing it, but that's a bit crucial to the whole thing, don't you think? Hmm? To summerize the feel of the story is... impossible. You're taken back, WAY back, to when you were a little kid and wanted to explore everything. You wanted to fly and dig to the center of the earth and back and go back so you could reach China. The whole spirit of the movie keeps you there, with this theme of adventure. You're never too old to go on an adventure.

CGI has gotten to be pretty popular nowadays, and Up uses that CGI to a brilliant measure. The cartoonish humans combined with the gorgeous backdrops is a beuatiful thing. I particularly like the dogs. They combined the sounds and the visual imagery the best. Before I get into the sound I want to go into my favorite character: Dug. He's a golden retriever with, like all dogs in the film, a collar that translates his thoughts into words. He is priceless, that is all. Every line of his is pure gold and I even shed a tear at one line. He said: "I hid under the porch because I love you." That was... *sniff* excuse me, I need a moment...

I want the soundtrack to this film. I can't for the life of me remember too many of the songs playing throughout but that's a gift and a curse. A curse because you can't remember what was playing, but a gift because it blended in so well with the overall story that it was a perfect fit. You have the cheesy orchestral inspirational pieces mind you, but in this movie they aren't just good; they're necessary, and they occur at the perfect times.

Let me go back to Ed Asner for a bit. His voice is perfect for the old man. I know he seems like he's mean and ornery in the previews and commercials, but he's actually just lonely. That's part of the story once again, I won't spoil it, but everything plays a role in his development from a lonely old man to an adventurous, kind old man. And he succeeds. What does that mean? Watch and find out.

Putting a score on a movie like this is kind of weird for me. I had a feeling going into the theater (yeah, I paid 8 bucks to watch this movie; passed up a blowjob and some booty for it too) that I was going to love this movie and I did, but there was no bias before hand, just a desire. If I had any criticisms it would be the brevity of the movie and the fact that Pixar is pushing a few boundaries now with life and death, which isn't a surprise move so much as that Disney was attached to it this time. Otherwise this film is the best thing I've seen this year, animated or life action. There's only one thing to give this gem:

DiZ Rating; 5 out of 5

As humans we tend to want to be God. You know what I mean? We want total control over things, everything, and we want the sadistic, narcissistic pleasure of being able to toy with the lives of others. Some might call it slavery. Some might call it a violation of free will. I have to call it the nature of man, and in the case of games I call it the current trend.

You may not know me too well but something I do is play games on a huge scale. I don't just play for my enjoyment (though that is undoubtedly the main reason) but I also play because I study games. Video games are, in a sense, like music in terms of culture. They can convey a powerful aspect of a people or a society. Take Fable and it's sequel and you'll see various aspects of the English (British) culture. Take True Crime: Streets of LA or it's sequel and you see many aspects of the gritty stereotype of police in the largest cities of the United States. What I've noticed a bit more is that its more overt in Japan, I'm assuming because a lot of video game (electronic) commerce takes place in that great nation. Games have a huge influence there and there's literally a game for everyone, from the anime addicts (a host of games featuring otaku wet dreams and crossovers from shows we'll never hear about in the states in a board game fashion, to name a few) to carnal pleasure simulators (the company Illusion seems to have a lock on the 3D aspect of this genre; a number of others in the 2D department) and everything in between. We will never see the same kind of gaming market in the United States, but the variety is expanding through the world.

Will Wright has a lot of fame. Why? For one he created The Sims. Any gamer who hasn't heard of this series has been living under a rock. I won't call it the first "life simulation" game because even MY knowledge of games isn't that strong, but I can call it the most popular (outside of those carnal pleasure ones in Japan; the Artificial Girl series is pretty big I hear) in the world. I also think it's interesting that Will Wright creates these games, but only slightly. He's an atheist that exhibits a mighty large number of elements of "free" will (something I go through myself) with his games. That control over human life is what makes the Sims such a beautiful series.

We were all enchanted with the first one and the second one made us jizz in our pants. So how does the third one stack up? Well that depends. If this is your first juncture into the Sims series then it's not just going to appear good; it's going to appear so real. Take control of everything, from sleep patterns to work patterns to bathroom visits and cleanliness to shower time tinkering and jogging around. You'll love the parallels to your everyday life and you'll hate them at the same time. If this isn't your first Sims then you'll probably say, "It's better... but that's about it."

It's not really hard to review a game like this. The graphics are nice. The sounds are good. You get immersed into the game because of The Wire kind of feel to the sound. In The Wire all sound was organic, minus what was coming from a stereo. That's what made it so great... one of the reasons. Convenience is there when appropriate (a cab from out of nowhere is great and all) and the upgrades decrease the realism in exchange for some serious fun. Hell, even the jobs are realistic: pay you piss poor money for the equivalent to hours upon hours of stress. You get over it by getting your rocks off, preferably due to a female. Have kids and eventually your sim DIES miserably (no, it can be peaceful) and his kids carry on the legacy. Blah blah blah, yak yak yak, dribble dribble dribble. A lot of games have been trying to pack more realism into their titles (Grand Theft Auto 4 for example) and this one works with only keeps in when necessary.

Okay, graphically, audio wise, replay wise, this game is a keeper, a true PC/Mac/Linux(?) classic. Why? Because it proves that real life can be fun in a false capacity... so long as you don't live an exact life of a Sim... but even that can be funny if you put in a cheat code... the game, not real life. Let me explain my Sim's life so far. He's Tripp Mims, an aspiring rock star that has cornrows because he "doesn't want to be confused with hippies". He bought a house he just barely had the money for and spent the first week of his life in the new city eating 6 dollar pancakes in his bathtub. He found a job at the local theater on his first day and convinced a woman to pretty much fall in love with him in that same day. After two more weeks he finally got enough money to afford a bed and earned a single promotion after stressful days. Then he learned how to slack off at work and get paid as if he was working his ass off. When this happened he bought his guitar, finally, and spent three more weeks eating pancakes and mac & cheese before finally going to the grocery store. His house was a mess because he rarely picked up the newspapers outside and every other day either his sink or his cheap black and white TV broke. He invited that girl over once and tried with all his might to get her to woohoo with him, but because it was so ealry in the morning she either left and went home or just slept. His life sucked...

ALAS! Then he started to miraculously get 50,000 every few minutes... he bought thousands of dollars of things and upped the property value of his house to about six, seven times what he paid for it and moved to a better house on the other side of town. After adding a couple of nice touches (including a snazzy beverage maker) he invited that girl over again and they make woohoo about thirty times in a row. After their familiar relations he tried for a baby fifteen times and smiled when she had morning sickness. He smiled when he was robbed and he smiled when he bought a jet for his backyard and smiled even wider when he bought a military watch tower and a windmill. After getting off from work a little while later he was informed of his son's birth and met with his girlfriend halfway on the way home to see his baby, and changed his diaper on the street. He hasn't seen either one of them yet, but he has learned how to play a couple of new songs on his guitar. Now, isn't virtual life fun?

Rating: 5 out of 5

If Mos Def’s first outing, Black on Both Sides, was any better then he would be in the exact same boat that Nas is in now. That’s to say he’d be afflicted with the eternal sophomore jinx. Everyone is mad at Nas for never meeting the critical acclaim of Illmatic, but he really can’t help it at this point, or ever. Mos is in a similar boat; Black on Both Sides is considered a classic for good reason. Not many rappers combine peerless lyricism with socio-political tracks, jazzy vibes and gluteus maximum tributes, and even fewer can do it whether rapping or singing. See, Mos Def is an interesting case because BoBS was kind of his second album (first was with Talib Kweli as half of Black Star, an even better album in my humble peerless opinion) and when he said The New Danger was his next album people put him on a pedestal. Then they heard the album. The immediate reaction, a resounding “Ewww….”

Don’t get it twisted though; The New Danger was NOT a bad album. If anything, it was a boat change. If Mos Def was (is) on the same sort of path as Nas then The New Danger was a detour into the channels of Common territory. Like Electric Circus, the album was something of an experiment, sans the influence of a neo-soul goddess. Fusing elements of rock and rap and metal he crafted a decent album (B- at the best) that was booed like a marijuana-addicted rehab patient because it was too drastic a change from the base he established with BoBS. Did this deter the Chuck Berry of Rap? I want to say it did, because his next effort was the poorly publicized and critically canned True Magic. I know sometimes an artist has to put something out because of A&R demands (Nas, Nastradamus) or sometimes the rapper wants to do something new and fails miserably (Common, Universal Mind Control) but True Magic was bad nearly all around. There were a couple of standout tracks; scratch that, there was ONE standout track that was saved for the album. To be mean I’ll leave that for you to listen to yourself.

For three years we’ve waited for Mos Def to do something musical again. His acting career has been on a high lately (Cadillac Records; Be Kind Rewind) and he’s been pretty vocal in the world of politics and conspiracy theories, but musically, what’s he been up to lately? Aside from a few Youtube videos where he’s hinting at new shit or freestyling while drunk or just talking introspective like he always seems to do (and yet he’ll still marry a woman he’s only known for a couple of days) or about how nothing rhymes with orange… you get the irony? Until you give The Ecstatic, Mos Def’s true and powerful return to prominence, a good listen, you may not realize that Dante Smith brought us The Ecstatic long before it hit stores. If you still don’t get the irony you will when you listen to the LP.

In a return to form, Mos starts out with a standard intro (Supermagic) with a few lines, a quote I’m assuming, from who knows who (I want to say Malcolm X) and suddenly the Boogeyman busts out the gate with his crazy brand of lyrical genius, declaring that he’s back (been back for about a year if you see the irony). He goes from there right into Twilite Speedball, switching from his somewhat swift flow to a slower pace as his words perfectly compliment the tuba-laced bass line. From here Def drops down to Auditorium, the first of three guest featured songs. With the help of the legendary Slick Rick and the production of Madlib the two spit some pseudo stream of consciousness rhymes that make just as much sense as they don’t. There’s a definite reasoning behind this track, but it almost gets lost as the combination of the beat and the two legendary emcees puts the listener into a dreamlike state.

Wahid is a familiar track, lyrically at least. The second Madlib production puts yet another masterful beat behind Mos Def’s more DOOM-like flow, and considering the chemistry of Madvillainy it’s no wonder this track works so well. Drifting from Madlib for a moment to the more “soul” vibe of Preservation’s musical methodology, the Mighty Mos goes on a couple of lyrical warm-ups (exhibitions trump these but these are still better than your favorite rapper’s best verse) with Priority and Quite Dog Bite Hard. Next is the first single from the album, Life in Marvelous Times. This track had to grow on me a little bit but I’m feeling it. The beat just feels out of place in comparison to the tracks that came before it, but it sets up the rest of the album at the same time. Otherwise it’s another Mos Def lyrical warm-up (exhibitions are rare in Mos). Mr. Flash is a weird cat, as shown with the next track The Embassy, which has a “Middle Eastern” feel to it halfway through (something else I get a feel of through the LP) and, of course, Mos Def blesses the beat with his words.

No Hay Nada Mas… don’t know how to call this one. He’s either speaking Spanish or doing some scat rapping, and I am an expert in neither. Chill beat behind it, and it’s a welcome sort of intermission for the remainder of the album. I’ll be sure to do some serious translating (or I’ll pay someone to do it for me) in the near future. Otherwise I like this track, if only because it breaks the path of the album even more. Pistola is the ever-popular “love” song that every rapper has to do, but leave it to Black Dante to put a spin on it; and he does. Is he talking about the gun or the woman?

Pretty Danger is my favorite solo track off of the album because of the history I see of it. It sounds like a drunken Mos Def freestyle (which usually turns out brilliant) and the beat behind it makes it sound… inorganic. Combining the natural flow and the inorganic beat sounds like an uneven combination, but the fact that they don’t seem to meld as one, at least to me, is one of the strengths behind it. Workers Comp addresses the recession a little bit, an expected move considering Mos Def’s socio-political wordplay. Revelations, the last of the Madlib productions, is like a Saturday morning cartoon: fun to observe and over the top. The track isn’t breathtaking but the xylophones of the beat awaken feelings of nostalgia.

I thought Roses was the full version of Flowers, a video Mos Def did as a promo for this LP a while back, but while the Georgia Anne Muldrow assisted track is not Flowers arguably the most sincere track on the album. I love it the most because of the beauty of it but I don’t like that it takes forever for Mos to start spitting on it. When he does, however, he more than makes up for his delay. The short verse is a lyrical exhibition, a rarity in Mos case because his bar for such things is so high. This goes into the fleeting but exquisite dream track of History, a reunion of Mos Def and Talib Kweli (Black Star) and production from the late great James Dewitt Yancey, J. Dilla. History has the capacity to be the best track on the album if only because of how eargasmic it is to hear Black Star trade verses once again. The title says it all really. The album closes with the most recent single, Casa Bey, where Mos Def goes on one more lyrical free-for-all before coming to a close. The Ecstatic is a great album, wonderful, but how does it stack up to the others? Well it is better than True Magic but what isn’t? It is superior to The New Danger too, but does it touch Black on Both Sides? No. Why? For a number of reasons.

When I first saw the track listing for The Ecstatic I started to draw comparisons to Madvillain’s Madvillainy. Most of the tracks are rather short and the stream of consciousness wordplay complimenting the odd, sexy production, yes, sexy production. While I admit that Madvillainy is one of my favorite albums I have to admit that it’s not user-friendly for the most mainstream crowd. The fact that it wasn’t so user-friendly is part of what made it great. For Mos it doesn’t work as well; that’s to say he isn’t quite as abstract as DOOM to pull off a feat like that. The format of the album is a bit off; it flows flawlessly between tracks as if it were one huge track but the eclectic nature of the production on this LP makes the flow purely physical in its flawlessness. Also, in a small complaint, where the hell are the singing tracks? Umi Says is probably one of the best tracks off of Black on Both Sides!

The biggest problem with the LP is the same one that Nas has with his discography, and it’s an unfair gripe, but Dante has to deal with the eternal sophomore jinx as well. All of his work will be compared to Black on Both Sides (if you’re really cruel you’ll compare it to Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star) and to this day nothing has. The New Danger didn’t reach that prominence and True Magic was a total 180, but at the very least The Ecstatic is the closest Mos Def has gotten to the bar he set for himself way back when. If this is a taste of things to come from one of New York’s Thieves in the Night then he might be nearing that bar, but until then this album stands as the strongest effort since BoBS. It doesn’t achieve that same classic status, but if this is the road Mos Def is traveling now then he just might reach that status once again…

Rating: 4 out of 5

(P.S. – I wouldn’t be surprised if this wasn’t the official release of The Ecstatic. If this was something of a precursor to the actual album I wouldn’t be surprised in the least. This is a great album, the best thing out of a legendary NY emcee in a while, but… I would use a video game reference but it would probably fly over some heads. Forget I said anything.)

This is a message to all living mortals... nah, just kidding (or am I?). Well, I haven't been posting too much on this blog, much to my own dismay, so I had to make a hard, necessary decision. Like Chairman Kaga of Iron Chef fame... I am... shutting down... my beloved Kitchen Stadium...

Wait, what? No, not Kitchen Stadium. Not shutting down either! Electronic Underworld, as I have come to accept, isn't wide enough. While a focus on games is good enough the fact that financial situations and the recession era are in full effect make a pure gaming site for someone like me a pipe dream. As I was widening my horizons I realized that I have seen more movies and listened to more albums than I have normally recently, and something registered in my head. It's all electronic; it's all digital.

So that's what this is about. I'm expanding the walls of Electronic Underworld to some opinions and maybe even some news stories about music, games and movies, and anything else that could fall into those categories. Hope you like the expansion.