"You are now rocking with the best," Mos Def announces at the start of this brief prelude to his sophomore album, 2004's The New Danger. And it's true: As heard here, Def is both a master of hip-hop fundamentals and an iconoclast pushing the genre in new directions. His flow on both tracks is straight ‘80s Bronx—hard and clipped and declarative. These songs explode with neck-cracking minimalism, like lunchroom table-thumping cranked to 11 and boosted with slithery flute, wiry guitar, and jet-engine bass.