Flyin' High - Mos Def & Marvin Gaye

Mos Def - Modern Marvel
taken from The New Danger (Geffen, 2004)

Marvin Gaye - Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky) & What's Going On
taken from What's Going On (Motown, 1971)

[Streaming not active yet: hold tight for next week]

I doubt that there is anyone out there who wasn't disappointed when 'The New Danger' hit the shelves a couple of years ago. 'Black On Both Sides' was such a landmark record for me that I simply couldn't wait to see what the mighty Mos was going to do next, and after five years of waiting, I guess it was no real surprise when the end product fell significantly short of my overblown expectations. The newly infused rock element seemed a strange direction to go in: although we knew that Mos had a bit of a thing about rock 'n' roll and the way in which it had been robbed from the black man only to be repackaged in a more palatable white version for mass consumption ('Elvis Presley ain't got no soul' don't cha know), something about this record simply did not work. Who exactly was the intended audience here? I can't imagine that many people who had loved his debut were particularly taken with it, and it didn't seem likely that it would draw a new audience in a saturated scene of rock/rap/pop nonsense spearheaded by groups such as Limp Bizkit. The sophomore slump was evidently still in full effect long after hip hop's heyday in the early '90s.

One diamond in the rough saved this release for me: the epic ode to Marvin Gaye entitled 'Modern Marvel'. I can remember angrily skipping through the album when I first copped it, holding my head and muttering to myself something to the effect of 'what's happened?', only to be rejuvenated by the soft sounds of Marvin floating behind Mos' initial adlibs as the album was coming to a close. Clocking in at just over nine minutes, 'Modern Marvel' is not only the standout cut on an extremely mediocre album, but also one of the best pieces of work that Mos Def has ever produced: a high acclaim given the strength of releases in his earlier years.

The track is broken into three distinct sections of around three minutes a piece, each utilising a variety of samples from Marvin's 'Flyin' High (In The Friendly Sky)' (also referenced on Pete Rock's quality remix of Blackstar's 'Respiration') and 'What's Going On', the lead single from his classic album of the same name. The beat is produced by Minnesota, who I hadn't realised had posted production credits on several well known joints from the likes of Naughty By Nature, Big Pun and Sadat X amongst a host of others during the mid to late '90s. The production here is deep, simple, incredibly soulful and wonderfully paced, with each transition raising the hairs on the back of your neck as you are propelled forwards into each section of the track. My favourite moment is undoubtedly at the 5.53 mark when Marvin's vocals fade out with a healthy dose of reverb only to make way for a bangin' drum kick and your entrance into the adrenalin fueled final third of the song: genius.

Mos Def's vocal delivery is highly enjoyable as well. Although he is by no means a match for Marvin's voice, his delicate singing in the opening third of the song is charming, and as the beat opens up so too does Mos, culminating in a couple of the finest verses that he has ever committed to wax in the song's closing section. Calling for the 'ghetto people of the world today [to] get up', Mos begins by drawing direct inspiration from Marvin himself, utilising lyrics from 'What's Going On' as a jumping off point to discuss the ills of contemporary society. However, the crowning moment of Mos' performance lies in the second verse, where he muses on how Marvin might react to the world today given his hopes for peace and unity all the way back in the early '70s:

If Marvin was alive now, wow,
What would I say to him?
Where could I start?
How could I explain to him?
I know the minor world would probably look strange to him,
Would he feel like today had a place for him?
Global imprisonment, sickness, indifference,
When he said, "Save the babies," was we listenin'?
When he said, "Mercy, mercy," did he really know,
That decades later we'd still be killin' folks?
Or did he hope that we would realize,
That we the first, the son of earth,
The moon and stars, the great beyond,
We black and proud, we brave and strong,
We raise it up, we quiet storm, forever fresh,
And keepin on...

I love the way that this imagined dialogue between Mos and Marvin unfolds, ending with references to hip hop songs and lingo that effectively tie the struggles of the past and present together, bridging the time elapsed between Marvin's original words of protest and Mos' own with eloquence, power and style.

Unfortunately, this song alone cannot make up for the shortcomings of the album elsewhere, but it is so epic in its scope that I can almost forgive Mos for his explorations down other musical avenues on the majority of 'The New Danger'. This is soulful, richly textured hip hop at its finest, and although this song may not quite be a 'What's Going On' for the hip hop generation, it is a demonstration of the depth and musical power of the genre. Kick back and immerse yourself in one of Mos Def's finest hours: with his move into Hollywood and an increasing distance musically from his earlier works, we are unlikely to see him ever produce something this good again.

(Thanks for the help Dad - totally!)