THE ECSTATIC MOS DEF

New York summer of 2009 was something. It was the ending of an era and Mos eased us into it with the last concert of the season. It‘s been a minute right. I remember leaving Chace Infinite's Brooklyn apartment for the downtown Manhattan ferry to the island. The show was sold out. When we got there Jay Electronica wasnt performing but giving a long ass sermon on stage like he had to. Cassie and Diddy were in the backstage and Jill Newman made everything happen. It was those times. Although the album was called The Ecstatic and although the sounds on it are vivid, loud, interrupting, disturbing even, it has something calming about it. I guess quiet dog bite hard. It is wisdom. The calm knowledge that there is dangerous, disrupting, fatal change about to happen, yet the absence of fear prevails. Because when all is said and done there’s only one. That’s when I understood why the book by Victor D. Lavalle inspired him to the title. He took us to the ending of that decade, facing the Brooklyn skyline, covered in red light.

(Here are the old photos)