I’m going to end this hat-trick of new music posts with one suggesting that another old master is about to regain his form.

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=57020701[/myspace]

I’ve been a massive fan of the Mos Def track Umi Says ever since I heard it back in about 2000, and especially love the Zero 7 remix. But since then I’ve tended to think that Mr Def has gone a bit off, with his best work coming on the screen rather than on the stereo. But if this single, Casa Bey, is anything to go by then Mos Def’s new album The Ecstatic is all set to be this year’s The Renaissance, the album that saw Q-Tip march triumphantly back to the top of the hip-hop heap.

Casa Bey sees Def spitting rhymes like he’s at his absolute peak, whilst the sounds to go with it are a, frankly disconcerting, stream of samples, breaks and even, to end, a lovely classical-style piano outro. I’ve found what seems to be an entirely legal free download of Casa Bey and if it spurs you on to then go out & buy The Ecstatic when it comes out, I can only encourage you to go and get your free MP3 now – I have and will.

Mos Def by J. Scott 2 on flickr