Rating:
  Review Date: January 31, 2007
  Website: Mos Def Website
  Label: Geffen

Mos Def “True Magic” Album Review
I used to be a WWF Wrestling fan. Go ahead, laugh it up. I don’t know why, but something about the beefing soap opera drama was funny to me. When they give their little speeches where they talk shit to whoever they’re beefing with at the time, they often put on great performances, and I always felt it was not that different from freestyle battle rapping. I used to like cats like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Booker T, mostly because they could control the mic well. But above all, the Rock was my motherfucking man dogg.  

Unfortunately for wrestling fans, the Rock was a real good-looking and charismatic cat, and he eventually left the WWF to pursue his acting career, which has taken off pretty well since then. However, every once in a while, I would turn on TNT and see the Rock doing guest spots for the WWF . and the fans loved him for it. This always amazed me. I mean, some people might think that the fans would hate on the Rock for leaving the show. But they didn’t. They seemed to be really supportive of his career and happy for the success he had seen.

Searching for Mos Def
I always think of this comparison when I think of Mos Def. Unlike wrestling fans, most hip-hop fans aren’t happy for Mos Def. Instead, they show him no love when he tries to come back. I guess they’re mad at him for being successful. Maybe they hate him for making money when they ain’t got any. Or perhaps they consider him a sellout for making blockbuster movies, doing commercials for huge companies, and experimenting with rock and soul sounds in his music. And nowhere are those notions better represented than in the reviews of his new album “True Magic.”

“True Magic” is obviously no “Black on Both Sides,” and it does seem that Mos may have just squeezed this album out perhaps in an attempt to prevent bootlegging or perhaps in an attempt to finish out his deal with Geffen. Yet mark my words, it is still a good hip-hop album, regardless of what the haters who probably didn’t even listen to it are saying. For those of us who don’t expect or want a “Black Star” or “Black on Both Sides” replication every time Mos Def drops, “True Magic” comes across as Mos’ laid back return to his hip-hop roots, with tracks that cover all angles of the hip-hop triangle.

The production is solid though simple, and shows hints of each of Mos’ past directions, including rock, blues and experimental sounds, while maintaining a comprehensive return to straight hip-hop. Mos’ flows stay innovative, and he manages to find several unique methods of slinging rhymes or singing hooks over the often head-nodding beats. And as always, Mos comes correct lyrically, discussing topics ranging from love and anger to politics and society, while the album seems based around Mos Def’s verses, something his last album did not. Overall, I think it’s a great album.

So before you pay any attention to all the negative reviews this album is getting, give it a good listen. Forget for a minute that it’s Mos Def; forget for a minute that he created “Black on Both Sides,” and give it a good listen . because even after several rotations, I can’t find anything but dope beats, conscious rhymes and, ultimately, good hip-hop. Now on to my real review …

Hip-Hop and Katrina
My favorite song on “True Magic” is “Dollar Day,” a song about New Orleans and the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Following the hurricane, I remember hearing several complaints about how local, state and national governments failed to prepare and manage the relief efforts.

First, the city of New Orleans decided to manage the disaster in a hotel ballroom instead of some kind of Emergency Operations Center, which turned out to be a mistake when the hotel’s phone service failed, severely limiting the city’s ability to communicate its needs. Second, the city failed to implement a timely emergency evacuation, leading to hundreds of deaths of people who couldn’t leave the city in time. Third, response teams and security were heavily outnumbered by stranded citizens, which caused many preventable deaths by thirst, exhaustion or violence in evacuation facilities. And fourth, the federal government seriously delayed it’s relief plan while denying help from such countries as Russia, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands, who all offered rescuers, supplies, food or medicine.

As if this wasn’t enough, I realized another way our government had failed in properly handling the Katrina disaster in New Orleans after hearing a verse by Mos Def in “Dollar Day”:

It’s Dollar Day in New Orleans
It’s water-water everywhere and people dead in the streets
And Mr. President he ’bout that cash
He got a policy for handling the people and trash
And if you poor you black
I laugh a laugh they won’t give when you ask
You better off on crack
Dead or in jail, or with a gun in Iraq
And it’s as simple as that
No opinion, my man, it’s mathematical fact
A million poor since 2004
And they got illions and killions to waste on the war
And make you question what the taxes is for
Or the cost to reinforce the broke levee wall

According to a New York Daily News article published in early September 2005, some seven thousand soldiers from the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard were stationed in Iraq when Hurricane Katrina hit. This included more than three thousand members of the 256th Brigade Combat team stationed in New Orleans [1]. In short, this means that 7,000 people whose job it would’ve been to help people victimized by Katrina couldn’t help because they were fighting in Iraq. On top of that, the Hattiesburg American reported that Dick Cheney personally diverted two electrical crews away from restoring power in two local hospitals so they could get his pipelines up and moving again [2]. “No opinion, my man, it’s mathematical fact.”

Last I heard, the United States has spent more than $300 billion on the war. That’s a lot of money which might, as Mos Def would say, “make you question what the taxes is for.” I’m sure $300 billion and 7,000 workers would have been sufficient to reinforce the levee wall to a point where it may have saved the city from Katrina. And if not, I’m positive those resources would’ve saved many lives in the Katrina aftermath by allowing people to be rescued earlier and providing food and water to evacuees.

To me, the Katrina disaster is just another example of how our country uses it’s riches to destroy instead of to build. This is our tax money, and we should have a say in what it’s being used for. Why would we spend “illions and killions” on a war in Iraq, especially one we were tricked into supporting, when there are poor people all over this country? Think about it. Peace.