Thoughts on this?

It's pretty good but sometimes it seems like mos def is trying too hard to be intellectual at the expense of actually sounding good

The Ecstatic is better, also give an example where he's trying to sound intelligent

Great album, not sure I agree with you with the exception of "Rock N Roll". I get what he was going for but i'm not sure I really liked either half of the track.

Anyone really like the last minute of that track though?

Like every song he tries to make a statement and talk about social issues and sometimes it seems a little forced and out of place. In mathematics I love some parts of it but then he just starts talking about how the minimum wage is too low and shit, it's not really what I am looking for in rap

I'm guessing it's more about the statement and the rock aesthetic, and not super serious musically.

the conscious stuff can get tiring but i like it a lot overall

The ending is a nice touch. That track is sorta like protest music of white culture stealing black music, and then he ends it with a hardcore punk section, which is a form of protest music made almost entirely by white people. Even if you are totally annoyed by the lyrics, at least with the punk ending he proves that he has a clue and has probably listened to a lot of rock himself

not a big fan of the production on this album.

I think you are reading too much into it

"when the average minimum wage is 5.15
you best believe you better find a new grind to get cream"

It's just a line. It's just a reflection on something he thought or saw and wrote a couplet about about it in a rap. That's what rap is. Don't put your political or social shit on it just listen to it as the perspective and words of another person.

>hardcore punk section, which is a form of protest music made almost entirely by white people.

key word being "almost." it seems obvious that he's underlining that hardcore was invented by Bad Brains and then done by whites, which is in keeping with the entire point of the rest of the song.