At the end of 2009, "The Ecstatic" was named one of the year's 10 best albums. It was ranked 30th by "The Guardian", 24th by "Q", 23rd by "Slant Magazine", 17th by "Rolling Stone", 16th by Sputnikmusic, 15th by "PopMatters", 12th by "Spex", 10th by "Relevant", 7th by "Spin", and 3rd by eMusic; About.com and BBC Music both named it the year's best rap record. In "The Village Voice"s Pazz &amp; Jop – an annual poll of American critics nationwide – "The Ecstatic" was voted the 11th best album of 2009. Christgau, the poll's creator, ranked it 12th on his own year-end list for "The Barnes &amp; Noble Review". "The Times" placed it at number 30 on the newspaper's decade-end list of the 100 greatest records from the 2000s. It finished at numbers 27 and 155 on similar lists published by Rhapsody and Rock's Backpages, respectively. "The Ecstatic" also earned Mos Def nominations for the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards (2010) in the categories of Best Rap Album and Best Rap Solo Performance (for "Casa Bey"). However, he lost in both categories to Eminem's "Relapse" (2009) and Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" (2009), respectively.