One thing that is certain is that Mos Def takes music back to a place which it has not been for a long time.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Whether this comes across effectively enough is debatable. Mos Def – The Ecstatic is an album where Mos Def successfully applies himself to every nook and cranny of the albums production. The way the album art has been designed around who Mos Def is will appeal to those who are interested in this and would like an artist to share their life and feelings through their work. This album is for lovers of Hip-Hop as a true form of expression. The audience would span in age from those in their late teens to those in their late 30s or even 40s. The audience for this album is clearly that of a Hip-Hop audience that are intelligent and savvy enough to not only enjoy the music but understand what Mos Def is saying and trying to do with this piece of work. For me it takes music back to what it should be about love, life and the music itself. Whether this album cover is a triumph or a failure is really up for debate. So Mos Def stripping away all the codes and conventions of an album cover and bringing it back to a pure form maybe a good thing. These are traditionally mediums of expression. Nevertheless we are talking about music and art here. The album art may be interesting to the eye but if it does not achieve its purpose to inform and promote the artist and the album itself it may be classed as a failure. Because the album art does not point in any specific direction anyone who is not familiar with Mos Def’s work may find themselves lost. The problem is that these images and concepts are not easy to understand at first glance and may take some time and research to fully understand. This gives his fans that feeling of being acknowledged as not just the driving force behind higher revenues but the soul purpose he does what he does. The album art is not just a pretty picture to go with the album but a metaphorical piece of Mos Def himself. For fans of Mos Def this is something they would love. Not only has he been able to represent the album well with imagery but he has also been able to use his influences to do so. Creatively this album is close to genius.
This album cover works well on some levels but not so well on others. Mos Def is a Hip-Hop artist yes, but he is a person and although the cover does not point to Hip-Hop it points to Mos Def and in turn then becomes Hip-Hop as it is part of him. For example the tracklist appears to be written in his own hand writing, giving the album a personal touch, different from the feeling of mass produced generic music. This does not point to a genre but points to him and may be an attempt to remove the label of genre from the music and present himself as a person instead. He has taken it a step further with the cover art for this album and has put his influences on show.
#Album cover of mos def the ecstatic. code
This album art points less to a genres code and conventions but to those of Mos Def himself. Not only that, but the picture on the back of the album is a picture of Noble Drew Ali at an attendance at the Moorish Science Temple Conclave in 1928. There is a hinting towards music of black origin by the front cover which is a screen shot of the 1977 film “Killer of Sheep” which is a film about African-Americans living in the ghettos of Los Angeles. Yes I know its a Mos Def album but without that knowledge I’m very much lost. There are not many clues on the album cover that tell me what to expect when I put the CD in my CD player. This album cover is not very genre specific. He does still have some of the normal codes and conventions of an album cover such as the tracklist on the back of the album, the barcode, website and info of the record label (top left hand corner under the barcode in red), copyright, year it was made and the producer.
But Mos Def has decided to go against this for this album. Most CD covers follow many normal codes and conventions that you would normally find on an album cover such as the image of the artist, the artists name and album title etc.
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