Tag: Yasiin Bey/Mos Def

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yasiin Bey Shares a Cognito-Filmed, Directed and Edited Visual for “Priority”

Originally released on Downtown Records back in 2009, a decade after his celebrated and beloved solo debut, Black on Both Sides, Yasiin Bey‘s sophomore album The Ecstatic was widely regarded as his strongest work in years. The album earned near-universal praise for its lyrical breath and eclectic production and received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rap Album, anchored around a globe-spanning sound shaped by a collection of visionary producers including Madlib, J. Dilla, Oh No, Preservation, Mr. Flash, The Neptunes‘ Chad Hugo and Georgia Anne Muldrow. The album also featured guest spots from Slick Rick and Talib Kweli.

The acclaimed and beloved emcee recently teamed up with Rhymesayers Entertainment, who will release a re-issue of The Ecstatic on all physical formats on tomorrow, August 14, 2026. This reissue marks the first time Yasiin Bey’s landmark sophomore album has been made available for worldwide distribution in over 15 years. The reissue brings the album’s jazz, soul and Middle Eastern-inspired sound back to the analog format, allowing listeners to experience tracks like “Supermagic,” and the Grammy Award-nominated “Casa Bey” with the warmth and depth the production deserves.

Among the physical format variants of The Ecstatic is a deluxe package pressed on double LP 180-gram black vinyl, and a translucent red 7″ vinyl single featuring the previously unreleased bonus tracks “The Size” and “The Tournament.” The reissue package will also include a 120-page hardcover book, designed and laid out by Frolab featuring photos from legendary filmmaker and photographer Cognito, who documented a two-year span of Yasiin Bey creating and promoting the original 2009 release, along with lyric quotes and some of his handwritten notes from the era. And of course, all vinyl orders will receive instant digital downloads of the full album. Fans are also encouraged to visit CasaBey.com for news and special announcements from Yasiin Bey, as well as The Ecstatic apparel.

The album will also be available through exclusive streaming partner Quboz.

To celebrate the release of the reissue, the acclaimed and beloved emcee shared a new, Cognito-directed video for album track “Priority” featuring never before seen footage of Yasiin behind the scenes in the studio, on the road and more. I turned 30 that year, so looking at this footage of a young Yasiin Bey is very much like looking back into my entire 30s. “After culling images that would eventually make it into the deluxe edition photobook + vinyl, I created a music video for ‘Priority’ too,” Cognito says. ” I used clips pulled from over 70 hours of mini DV footage I captured during those years – from the first studio visit in LA when yasiin was recording the album, to press appearances for the initial release, to out on the road for The Ecstatic Tour across the US and all the way to South Africa.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, Yasiin Bey!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Yasiin Bey’s 51st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy (Belated) 52nd Birthday, DMX!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 52nd anniversary of DMX’s birth.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: Mos Def/Yasiin Bey

Today is the third day of Black History Month. And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few days of this month, you’d see that I’ve been featuring Black artists across a wide and eclectic array of genres and styles that I think can guide you towards understanding the Black experience.

Through the month — and throughout the year, I hope that you’ll come to understand and appreciate the following:

Black culture is American culture
Black music is American music.
Black history is American history.
America’s greatest and beloved contributions to the world are Black music styles — the blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll and hip-hop.
Black art matters.
You can’t love black art and black artists without loving black people.
Black lives matter — all of them, all of the time.

Mos Def (now known as Yasiin Bey) recorded one of the most important and relevant albums of my life, an album I turn to whenever racism and its ugly head rears its head in my life — Black on Both Sides. If you’ve had the chance to get to know me in real life, it wouldn’t be surprising that for the first JOVM DJ set, I ended the set with “Umi Says,” one of my favorite songs off that album. Also, the man in my opinion is one of the greatest living emcees, ever.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of 2006’s full-length debut Olessi: Fragments of an Earth released through Stones Throw Records, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, musician and producer Georgia Anne Muldrow quickly established herself as a key member of her hometown’s avant-garde hip-hop/jazz/soul scene; in fact, while on Stones Throw Records, Muldrow befriended and collaborated with Madlib, Oh No, MED, Wild Child, DJ Romes and her future partner Dudley Perkins, also known as Declaime.

Along with Perkins, Muldrow co-founded SomeOthaShip Connect Records in 2008 and through their label, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, musician and producer released forward-thinking, genre-defying material under a number of monikers and  including Ms. One, Pattie Blingh & The Akebulan 5, Blackhouse, an electro fusion project with DJ Romes and the critically renowned jazz project Jyoti, which garnered Jazz Album of the Year honors at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards back in 2011 for Ocotea.  Since then Muldrow has developed a reputation as a musician’s musician, who has been praised and championed by Yasiin Bey, Bilal, Erykah Badu with whom she collaborated of Badu’s New Amerykah Part Two and Robert Glasper, with whom she collaborated with on the Miles Ahead soundtrack.

Fittingly, Muldrow signed with Brainfeeder Records and her first Brainfeeder release is the Mike & Keys-produced “Overload,” a somewhat anxious yet swooning track centered around a slick and retro-futuristic and soulful production featuring stuttering beats, arpeggiated keys and an infectious hooked paired with Muldrow’s effortlessly soulful, Erykah Badu-like vocals — and while being clearly indebted to the neo-soul sound of the late 90s and early 00s, the song is about “the process of building loving relationships in spite of the malfunctions of Western Society.”