Mos Def is back - that crawling drawl, the afro funk vocal doodles, a political torch blazing brightly - all that - totally integrated into a loose experimental Preservation driven, Madlib spirited sound. Production is funk refined and old school wonky without out ever getting too vintage. Tracks by Mr Flash from dance label Ed Banger and Chad Hugo of the Neptunes are current without trying overly hard to be too new crunk cool or electro bombastic like Method Man and Redman's recent Blackout II. Instead, The Ecstatic is a closely vibing but not copycatting cousin to Badu's New Amerykah.

Hear Mos Def afresh on Casa Bey, the least verbally lazy since Black on Both Sides. His flow and singing throughout the album take on a jazz tinged arrangement that becomes more than the sum of the original parts. Lyrically sharp, the "freestyle" style compliments the musicality of the track and shifts percussively, tonally, a feature not usually found in straighter "rap" albums. While familiar stylistic tics dot the album, elements, like the verse to verse pause, are redefined through the revised structural context. It's no accident that Mos Def performs at a couple Jazz festivals towards the end of this year.

Both Slick Rick and Talib make distingushed and appropriate appearances, a flag for the notable sweet spot that The Ecstatic hits. But while it acknowledges the past, the album never gets mired in Hip Hop history. Rather, it delivers us the Mos Def we know and love, but different, better. Black on Both Sides was a perfect piece of work, perfectly coffee toned and caramelized, its sensibility tuned to a certain bboy register. The Ecstatic, pitched more ambitiously but just as listenable, reaches broadly and colors more vividly outside the lines. I am a very very glad fan.