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"\n\nMOS DEF \"Supermagic\" from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.\n\nAt just over 2 minutes, 'Supermagic,' the latest single from Mos Def's grammy-nominated album The Ecstatic (up for Best Rap Album in February) is a fresh, buoyant quick-hitter of a song. Lyrically, Mos' touch is light here, essentially chanting over the track in that sly way only he seems capable of.\n\nThe real star though is the killer sample\u2014taken from an old song by Kurdish folk rock singer and '70s cult hero Selda Bacan\u2014that backbones 'Supermagic.' If it sounds familiar, you might've heard it earlier this year in an ox360 TV spot for Skate 2. The song in the ad was 'Heavy' by California DJ/producer/rapper Oh No, and it was built on the same Bacan sample as the Mos Def single. Renowned in her native country and among discriminating Eurasian folk enthusiasts worldwide, the woman known as the Turkish Joan Baez found the time between working as an activist and being repeatedly jailed by the Turkish military to crank out the funkiest, psych-rock of the '70s and '80s. Following the 2006 re-release of her 1974 debut album, Bacan's music seems on the verge of a mini underground revival of sorts. Like Oh No, Mos Def leaves the sample virtually untouched\u2014smart enough to know that his source material is really a jam all on its own. \u2014GRAHAM CUMBERBATCH"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/on-the-gq-hi-fi-mos-def-supermagic>