4/5
The Beautiful Struggle.
The Revolution will be more than televised. It's been a great Friday in hip-hop. Kind of like a G.O.O.D Friday for a man who still shows love for his Chi-town brother Kanye, despite his Trump endorsement running for President like 'Tha Carter' Lil' Wayne. Despite Weezy F. Baby (please don't say that baby), this has been a week in rap that has finished strong like Mister Cee. Wrapping up the seven days we have Busta Rhymes' first album in 8 years and a return to Woo Ha form with the sequel to his 1998 classic, 'Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God' for end of the world starters. All whilst those ATLiens OutKast came back down to earth to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their stellar 'Stankonia' album like an ASAP black and white American flag that rocks like those Baghdad guitars. As Big Boi and Andre 3000 added more 'So Fresh, So Clean' classic cuts to their catalogue collection like a Snoop Dogg remix. Even Elvis Costello ('Hello, Clockface') has an album out...and we thought last week was big with Ben Harper's instrumental move and the Boss, Bruce Springsteen's letter with the E Street band. Costello may not be rap, but he once rocked with The Roots on the collaborative album, 'Wise Up Ghost'. So has rapper slash actor Common, who has continued to consistently create classics ever since he decided to just 'Be', looking for love and 'Finding Forever'. He feels like raps Coltrane on a love supreme. The Roots rapper Black Thought beats the drum on one of these tracks, whilst Com also rocks with guitar God Lenny Kravitz like Busta ('Make Noise'), Diddy ('Show Me Your Soul') and Jay-Z ('Guns N Roses') all once did. The rock legend who has been writing his just released memoirs named after his first album, 'Let Love Rule' quarantined in Eluthera. Just like Common did last year when he 'Let Love Have The Last Word', all whilst releasing a classic CD in conjunction with 'Let Love'. That was just over a calendar ago and Sense is already back like he was on stage last week which really isn't common right now. And he's not done as like Lenny's 'It's Time For A Love Revolution' back in the day, Common's 'A Beautiful Revolution (Pt. 1)' hints at another classic chapter to come soon in this beautiful struggle called life.
Revolutionary warfare, halfway housin' between an extended play and LP, the cover of 'Revolution's' silk print, art deco, best yet artwork decoration could be something straight out of the Mardi Gras of New Orleans for you Pelicans like the road to Zion. Featuring three boys in shorts trumpeting with three raised fists for Black Power that will always matter. It could almost be the black gloved salute of the podium of the 1968 Olympics. It's most certainly a homage. And a jazzy look at the most soulful Common Sense has been since we tasted 'Like Water For Chocolate' in his Soulquarian days right before his criminally underrated and epic, 'Electric Cirus' late career catalyst that should have never been critically disregarded like 'Universal Mind Control'. Its experimentalism at it's best in a genre that discriminates this gesture, treating it like 'The New Danger' of a Mos Def rock album that rolls. Common has more classics than your favourite rapper as hip-hop's purest and most amazing artist. We all know about 'Be' and 'Finding Forever', or even the days he had the Sense to ask 'Can I Borrow A Dollar' before the 'Resurrection'. 'One Day It'll All Make Sense' like his first book. Or the last decade of the 'Selma' uplifting 'The Dreamer/The Believer' glory, the call to end Chicagoland violence on 'Nobody's Smiling' and the rise and return of 'Black America Again'. The Oscar winner and actor has so many classics in his catalogue like the Chris Rock named "human iPod" Busta Rhymes that you almost forget. But you shouldn't. Like former beau Badu (find yourself an ex who) getting up emphatically to applaud Lonnie Lynn as he shone 'The Light' on Dave Chappelle's Mark Twain award night this year on stage. As we need artists like him now more than ever before in this truly terrible year of losing Black Mamba's, Panther's and loves in this fight against police brutality and coronavirus. Now like 'Let Love' last year, you can put this 'Beautiful Revolution' and hopefully it's second part next to this musical movement.
Beauty begins with 'Fallin'' like Alicia (who after her own amazing album tweeted how "sick" this one was) after the, "ain't it beautiful. When we smile it's a musical" spoken word self-titled into with the "revolution within'. As Common bootcut raps, "Confront the day, I want a way to make sense of it/Yeah, it's a maze-ment/The turn of the world and how they see you/Ye already said they see us as black Beatles/Black people, open Hebrews/Let it speak to the saviour inside/You'll see why the world needs you/Black bodies fallen in the hands and the clutches of/Descendants of the Dutchman - Anglo motherf#####s/That don't love us, wranglers, it's in their genes to cuff us/We the tribe of Levi, cut them jeans knee-high/I think that it would be wise to read the book of Eli-jah Mohammad," the kind of lines they used to bootleg before release dates back in the day. As he talks about racism, sexism and "Americanism" never stopping on the jazzy slow flow. Whilst on 'Say Peace' with the rhyme roots of Black Thought he raps like 'The Show', ""Knew I had to pull it, the bullet or the ballot/It's like the parable of the story of the talents/Want my people to get paper, with no margin/Turnin' ghettos to gardens like Ron Finley/Through stages of life, the world's my Wembley." Whilst Thought replies in mind kind, "In dystopian ground zero from xenophobia/They love to trope me and misquote me, they even wrote me/Out of all accounts other than shoulderin' small amounts/'Til I called them out, I'm what this story is all about/My arrival wasn't willingly, nah, but that's chillingly/The truth, now I fear from shots from cops killin' me/They on the hunt for the blood, and we the auxiliary/The Black power and love, I'm all the above/We'll find peace in the culture I'm responsible to save/And every piece of the puzzle, every article, the page/I'm at peace in the struggle, I'm awake and not afraid." Powerful lyrics for a critical time of protest. But don't call it like that. They've been socially conscious and doing this speaking about it for years. Speaking out for those who didn't have a voice before they could take to Twitter or the streets. All for what matters. The biggest collaboration here however belongs to the one with Lenny Kravitz which raises all vibrations as the rock star who right now is letting words rule has never played the guitar quite like this as Common gives us lyrics over the licks. Starting 'A Riot In My Mind' over the sirens as he says, "my brainstorm reigns supreme/black superhero with the Cape and wings" and "the minority report said we major" as Kravitz sings, "it's a war outside/when it's quiet it's a riot in my mind." But for all the classic collaborations (is that Stevie's harmonica?) on the seven seal and a bordering intro and outro of this 9 track innervision, it's the fantastic four with PJ that really shouldn't be slept on. The smooth 'What Do You Say (Move It Baby)', the heart of 'Courageous' and her heartfelt opening chorus, you'll recite by midnight. Her 'Place In The World' and 'Don't Forget Who You Are' like you shouldn't who this amazing artist is on what's her born star debut like Common was acting again as Dave Chappelle's friend Jackson Maine. You have to love it when a veteran mentor and protégé with potential catch lightning in a bottle and refuse to stop pouring, no matter how many tracks it hits. This EP to album almost feels like a collaborative one. Perhaps by part 2 for PJ it will be. As for now, yesterday when all my troubles used to be so far away, Busta, Big, 'Dre, Com'. A fab four in hip-hop for the big-three of New York, Chicago and the ATL reminded me of how much I still love H.E.R. The Revolution will be continued. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Fallin'', 'Courageous (Feat. PJ)', 'A Riot In My Mind (Feat. Lenny Kravitz)'.
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