Well, not so new any more since it came out in october 2004.

Mos Def, if you don't know, is a relatively well known MC who first appeared on some De La Soul songs then made an album with Talib Kweli in 1998, "Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star." A year later he released another album, "Black On Both Sides." This all earned him a reputation as a quality underground-style (but not really underground since Black On Both Sides sold 500,000 copies).

He took a break from album music for a while, recorded some singles for mix CDs for his label at the time, Rawkus Records. He also did some movies like The Italian Job remake and The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

I just got around to picking up The New Danger yesterday. It moves beyond just being a hip hop cd like Black Star or a hip hop cd with some experimental tracks like Black on Both Sides, to a full-on hip hop, rock, blues, soul, funk and everything else cd put together by a guy who happens to rap on a majority of the tracks. Mos is backed by his rock band, Black Jack Johnson, which is named after some old boxer guy. I think the album was originally going to be put out as a Black Jack Johnson, rather than Mos Def, album, but that other Jack Johnson guy got a hit single or two and Mos's new label Geffen (I'm not sure why he split with Rawkus, *edit* oh wait...Rawkus went out of business) decided to bank on his name.

Some of the more traditional hip-hop oriented type folks got mad at Mos for not putting out another "real hip hop" album, but having listened to the whole thing thru a total of 3 times I think it's a pretty amazing record. Check out the sample clips on Amazon, download it if you wish, and go out and buy it. I hardly ever buy CDs any more unless I really really like the album, and this one was worth buying to me.