Thirteen years on from his last performance in the country, the talented underground hip hop artist Yasiin Bey (formerly known as Mos Def) marked his return to the Aussie stage; this time, with an anniversary tour forThe Ecstatic, an album many listeners regard to be one of his finest.
The album itself is almost as elusive as he recently become. You’ll be unable to find it on any streaming services, largely due to Bey’s strong disdain for such.
As for the album’s masterpiece status, one listen to the album is enough to understand why.
The beats from producers such as Madlib and Oh No who take samples from Turkish psychedelic rock, weed-heavy soul, and Bollywood soundtracks (just to name a few), in conjunction with Yasiin’s socially conscious lyricism and subject matter, easily made this one of the most refined albums in his discography. It almost feels like a swan song for the Mos Def moniker which he boldly retired in 2011.
In conjunction with RISING festival, Yasiin announced his Oceania tour where he was to perform BEYONDOOM, his tribute concert to the late MF DOOM, alongside a 15th anniversary live performance of The Ecstatic.
On June 9, despite a fluctuating start time, The Port Melbourne Industrial Centre for the Arts (PICA) stage—better known for hosting raves—hosted Yasiin’s rendition of all 16 songs.
To start things off, local DJ and producer DJ PGZ presented a 2-hour pre show for the event, in which he brought out his own guest performances, many of whom were upcoming artists.
One such artist he brought out near the end of his set was DRMNGNOW, whose raps were focused on his Aboriginal heritage, itself a uniting factor amongst all the guest features.
Once Bey came out onto stage, the audience were strapped in for a unique live experience that was unlike any other.
Right off the bat, it should be mentioned that his performance style is wildly distinct; sprinkling rose petals, spray painting a banner, and dancing and spinning around the stage is how Bey introduced himself before getting into the exhilarating album opening Supermagic.
Covering the first verse twice, Bey then let the song go on for a bit longer as his accompanying DJ played the original song that the beat samples, as Yasiin danced some more.
After getting through the chorus for Auditorium, which he rapped over with a furious vigour, Yasiin yelled out “Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan!” which was followed up with him chanting “Free your heart!” right before the Slick Rick feature verse, which takes on the perspective of an American soldier during the occupation of Iraq.
Shortly afterwards, Bey took a detour from the music to tell us of how he met Prince at 3 AM one night on tour, not long after both the release of his aforementioned album and the death of Michael Jackson.
Yasiin’s charismatic storytelling helped us to share the laughs with him, where he also announced that it was to that date 15 years ago when the original album was released, following that up with a tease for an anniversary re-release on vinyl that’s on the way.
After a couple more songs, Bey returned to chatting with the audience after performing The Embassy, where he tricked the audience into believing that he was creating a blaxpolitation detective show, with the main character’s catchphrase being “I work for the Embassy, baby”.
After making fun of the audience’s gullibility, Bey then went on to elaborate on how the world is like an episode of Looney Tunes, where the three types of people in this world are The Roadrunner, The Coyote, and ACME.
Going on to better explain his metaphor, Bey says that “the government is ACME” and that “ACME crates are all over Times Square”.
As crazy as this may sound, it perfectly fits in with the kind of political messaging that Yasiin has been embedding into his music since the days of Black Star, the hip-hop duo he shares with Talib Kweli, who is featured on a verse later on in History but unfortunately did not appear on stage for such.
Yasiin then got into his last couple of songs, one of which included an unreleased track that the audience had the pleasure of witnessing before anybody else.
This was followed up with the energetic and funky album closer Casa Bey, which extended and played over his thank yous and goodbye to the audience.
When walking out of PICA’s giant warehouse space, one can’t help but reminisce on the concert experience that was just had.
Yasiin’s energetic and slightly off-kilter performance style helps to make him stand out from other artists, and it’s refreshing to see an artist who is not afraid of getting a little weird.
It was an enjoyable concert and satisfying return for a musician who is truly one of the most unique in the rap game.
By Elior Malka
Header image by Gianna Rizzo via Rising