![]() ![]() It was his idea to revive the Game Theory name – to bring things full circle, I suppose, but also because the name would draw a little bit more attention than making it another Loud Family release. Miller was working on Supercalifragile before he died. He was living with this for a very long time, and even when he stated it plainly everyone just nodded and thought “Scott Miller is a clever and funny guy.” Maybe it was a literary reference or something. This is a guy who wrote a song called “Slit My Wrists” with a chorus that goes “what I need is not ways to go on / what I need is to slit my wrists and be gone.” That song came out 20 years before he actually killed himself. Anxiety and misery was present in an alarming number of his songs going back to the beginning, and sometimes it was not even a subtextual thing. That didn’t become obvious to me until after he killed himself in 2013, and then it became very hard to not hear it on every record. I listened to his music – primarily his Loud Family work, though his Game Theory discography is what made him an indie hero – for a very long time before noticing how much of it is about depression. I can imagine his delight upon first thinking of the joke, and then a moment of reflection and self-identification: “Yup, that’s me, super Cali fragile.” The name of the final Game Theory record is Supercalifragile, which is definitely the best album title to come along this year, and a perfect example of Scott Miller’s wit as a lyricist – a mawkish bit of Disney nostalgia broken in half to reveal a vulnerability that was always right there in front of us. The Ecstatic is far from perfect, but if you take it for what it’s worth a fun step into an offbeat MC’s sundry world, you are sure to have a good time.Game Theory “An Overview of Item Response Theory” The Ecstatic might just be the transitional album many mainstream fans need to discover those lesser-known hip-hop gems that have been over looked for years. This album has just enough experimentation peppered with an adequate amount of hooks to allow accessibility. This fast paced track is framed with a deep mallet drumbeat and a quick rhyming scheme that hardly leaves Def room to breathe (did I just spit hot fire? Seriously, rap that last sentence, I think I just became an MC).įlaws aside, Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, is a great album for the current state of mainstream hip-hop. However, my favorite song is “Quite Dog Bite Hard”. The most accessible track, “Life in Mysterious Times”, has a dirty south crunk style beat that stands out as the obvious choice for a first single. ![]() “Wahid” has a thick bass line that emphasizes Def’s smooth flow and intense rhyming pattern. ![]() Keep your ears open on “Auditorium”, for it’s 70’s kung-fu music intro and smooth fade in and out of a beautiful Madlib beat that gives you the impression it could have appeared on MF Doom’s Born Like This. "Pistola"," Pretty Dancer" and "Revelations").Īlbeit flawed, The Ecstatic still brandishes several gems. Def almost accomplishes this blend, but can’t seem to flee the mix-tape/unfinished feeling on several jams (i.e. Madlib’s bongo drum/pipe organ beats give Def the ability to seem effortlessly talented, yet progressively accessible (a very hard combination to pull off). On The Ecstatic, Mos Def takes his first giant leap forward by collaborating with Madlib on a number of songs. The Ecstatic is leaps and bounds better than Def’s 2006 release, True Magic (his worst album to date), and may be his best album since leaving Black Star. Mos Def has accomplished such a feat in his latest release, The Ecstatic. I love coming across a good album that I wasn’t anticipating. Something I always seem to enjoy in music is a surprise. ![]()
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