December 4, 1999

Mos Def : Ms. Fat Booty vol.1

there's no name-calling sexist pay-off, no insecure macho condemnation of female sexuality, just a wounded narrator bewildered by a post-feminist world.

No body bags or Bentleys on Mr Def's lead-off single from his
new
album, 'Black On Both Sides'. Over a slippery loop of honeyed soul vocals, he takes a familiar rap scenario and skews it sideways, detailing his smooth-talking seduction of a saucy laydee who proves too smart and independent to commit - she think she all that, as my old grandmother used to say back in the 'hood. So far so familiar, but there's no name-calling sexist pay-off, no insecure macho condemnation of female sexuality, just a wounded narrator
bewildered
by a post-feminist world.

"Man, I'm smashing like an Idaho potato", laments Deffo. Me too, old bean, me too.

Stephen Dalton