Mos Def - Black on Both Sides

[okp greg]

Just started relistening to the album two days ago and haven't been able to stop since. It's freaking perfect. Mos manages to range in topic from the superficial to supernatural and switches up the song styles repeatedly yet keeps it together. Cohesively diverse. Anyone else have similar feelings?

[mjpuczko]

i haven't listened to that in so long. i might today though.

[lamradio]

It's a brilliant album. My favorite hip hop album of all time.. Well, probably the only hip hop album I have ever listened to. Some of the songs are a little offensive (one could even say they are racist) but I think that's just the theme of the album, hence the title.

[Sir Stewart]

I love it. New World Water is one of the best conscious rap tunes ever, up there with the best of PE.

 

There's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)

Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water

On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)

Try it with your friends

New World Water make the tide rise high

Come inland and make your house go "Bye" (My house!)

Fools done upset the Old Man River

Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga

Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin

So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin

Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since

it's the New World Water; and every drop counts

You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna

But it don't rain for four weeks some summers

And it's about to get real wild in the half

You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath

Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank

Competin with the next man for higher playin rank

See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,

Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank

Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods

The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods

And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher

They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"

New York is drinkin it (New World Water)

Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)

Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)

Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)

Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)

Fluorocarbons and monoxide

Push the water table lopside

Used to be free now it cost you a fee

Cause oil tankers spill they load as they roam cross the sea

Man, you gotta cook with it, bathe and clean with it (That's right)

When it's hot, summertime you fiend for it (Let em know)

You gotta put it in the iron you steamin with (That's right)

It's what they dress wounds and treat diseases with (Shout it out)

The rich and poor, black and white got need for it (That's right)

And everybody in the world can agree with this (Let em know)

Consumption promotes health and easiness (That's right)

Go too long without it on this earth and you leavin it (Shout it out)

Americans wastin it on some leisure shit (Say word?)

And other nations be desperately seekin it (Let em know)

Bacteria washing up on they beaches (Say word?)

Don't drink the water, son they can't wash they feet with it (Let em know)

Young babies in perpetual neediness (Say word?)

Epidemics hopppin up off the petri dish (Let em know)

Control centers try to play it all secretive (Say word?)

To avoid public panic and freakiness (Let em know)

There are places where TB is common as TV

Cause foreign-based companies go and get greedy

The type of cats who pollute the whole shore line

Have it purified, sell it for a dollar twenty-five

Now the world is drinkin it

Your moms, wife, and baby girl is drinkin it

Up north and down south is drinkin it

You should just have to go to your sink for it

The cash registers is goin "cha-chink!" for it

Fluorocarbons and monoxide

Got the fish lookin cockeyed

Used to be free now it cost you a fee

Cause it's all about gettin that cash (Money)

Said it's all about gettin that cash (Money) [x9]

Johnny cash (Money)

Roseland cash (Money)

Give me cash (Money)

Cold cash (Money)

Cash rules everything around me,

Move!

 

And the album's opening monologue is incredible:

 

Listen.. people be askin me all the time,

"Yo Mos, what's gettin ready to happen with Hip-Hop?

Where do you think Hip-Hop is goin?"

I tell em, "You know what's gonna happen with Hip-Hop?

Whatever's happening with us

If we smoked out, Hip-Hop is gonna be smoked out

If we doin alright, Hip-Hop is gonna be doin alright

People talk about Hip-Hop like it's some giant livin in the hillside

comin down to visit the townspeople

We are Hip-Hop

Me, you, everybody, we are Hip-Hop."

 

Not to mention Ms Fat Booty.

[lost highway]

It is without a doubt classic hip hop. A great record. It is so dissapointing how he has never even scraped the heights he reached with Black on Both Sides. What happened? He did Black Star and that, and then the messy, promising/dissapointing New Danger. Didn't even bother with the latest after I read the reviews. Anyone heard it?

[okp greg]

But didn't you see him in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?!?! He was genius!! Ha. I hear ya. It's like he got bored with hip-hop and realized his dream of being a supporting-role actor.

 

It is without a doubt classic hip hop. A great record. It is so dissapointing how he has never even scraped the heights he reached with Black on Both Sides. What happened? He did Black Star and that, and then the messy, promising/dissapointing New Danger. Didn't even bother with the latest after I read the reviews. Anyone heard it?

[mjpuczko]

am i the only person who loves that movie?

[m_thomp]

An album so good it makes Busta Rhymes tolerable.

[Sir Stewart]

Ouch - Busta was a force to be reckoned with at one time. Got an A from Moe Dee for originality.

[okp greg]

Oh I love the movie, but Mos is still a better rapper than Ford Prefect.

 

am i the only person who loves that movie?

 

 

@ m_thomp There was a point where Busta Rhymes was okay in my mind, but that's faded. But you're right.

[mechanical_bird]

This is by far my favorite hip-hop record I have ever heard.