"I Ain't Got Time to Play No Crime Lieutenant"

Wow! Talk about an hectic time period for the one and only: JOHN Q. You know, to my four (moving on up, moving on up, to blogger paradise, blogger paradise) readers, I bet you are wondering what's up with John Q, My man. Well things got trife for me in the past few weeks and I still have troubles with the DMV (Your driving test can kiss my um...er... glass cause I see through you like water. Yeah what now?!). Excuse me, that just the Sunny D talking.

Anywhooooo, I have finally gotten back to my normal being (laughs bursts out across the room from those questioning if I be normals) and can continue on in my blogging journey. So today, I decided, oh what the heck, people just want to get wreck to the track, it's brand new... whoa. My mind went off the train tracks for a second and travel into the Pharcyde (look out for them soon). I was doing my daily rounds of blog surfing (look at the side of the page for the places I hit up) and saw that Ivan, of Hip Hop Is Read, does a great job on constantly posting intriguing and noteworthy material. One of the items that become etched and sketched into my mind was the sample set material he post on his website. Now, let me say that I love to get into the samples of some of the best hip hop albums of today and years past. I saw that recently him, and Kevin of Kevin!Nottingham: This Is Real Hip Hop, recently collaborated on a Big(pun intended) sample set for The Notorious B.I.G.'s first (and best) album, Ready to Die. This got me thinking about how I could contribute to the art of sample sets and someone threw in a Mighty Mos Def request, and whala, a idea was born.

This leads into the subject of toDAY's post (got to stop drinking the sunny D, got to stop drinking the sunny D). Now, in the 2- double O-8, the Mighty Mos is more well known for being that Hillary- without the -ry - arious dude from A Hitchhiker's Guide to yadayadayada (actually this was a funny movie and hit up netflix for a copy) than for being an emcee (who was (kinda still is when everything is in place and focus) dope). As i mentioned in the Jeru piece, I will save his backstory for a later and more appropriates time.

For now, I will drop a gem on you (big ups to Mobb Deep in their prime). I have here in my possession, something from Mos that was meant to draw him universal appeal. Still don't know what it be, well then step away from the computer, sit there for second and slap yourself sill-ill-illy for not guessing the correct answer. Now, don't sit there all upset because the time it took you to figure out the answer would make you a terrible contestant on Jeopardy, just look at the title of this post.

Moving Along, Mos Def introduced himself to the world not only through the Bush Babees second LP (will do post on in the future) and De La Soul's fourth LP (on the song "Big Brother Beat"), but also on his underground smash hit "Universal Magnetic". On his Universal Magnetic 12" itself, one gets the feel of what to expect from this young and bright cat from Brooklyn. On the the first side of the LP, Mos Def breaks down who and what he and (his sound) is. The song seems to have no real clear object other to introduce the Mighty Mos to the world and how he appeals to everyone. The other side (let's call it shadow) of this LP contains the song "If You Can Huh, You Can Hear". This song is self explanatory, but Mos Def does what he does (he's good at it here) and says "If you can huh, you can hear." You know, this song took a while for me to grow on, but I may like it better than the A-side of the record (quickly closes mouth with both hands like Jim Carey In "Liar, Liar.") The production on these tracks is real dope with Shawn J. Period doing the space, scenic production he usually laces tracks with. In fact, he is well known for his work with the Mighty Mos, Talib Kweli, Bush Babees, aw F-it, let's just saw underground hip hop in th late 90's.

So without further ado, Mos Def's Universal Magnetic 12", with a little something extra of course:

Mos Def - Universal Magnetic

Fan Made video with wrong album cover (but uploading song gives you back cool points)

&

Mos Def- If You Can Huh, You Can Hear

Fan Made video with just Mos' Picture

Now, Finally for my (please let someone read this post me) readers, here is the Universal Magnetic 12":

1		The Universal Magnetic (Original Version)
2		The Universal Magnetic (Instrumental)
3		If You Can Huh You Can Hear (Original Version)
4		If You Can Huh You Can Hear (Instrumental)