4/5
Common People
If you still need to borrow a dollar, a few more of yours would help you get one of the greatest discographies in these 50 plus years of H.E.R. 'Like Water For Chocolate, or the 'Resurrection'. The experimental 'Electric Circus' that they hated and debated, but now it all makes sense, like 'One Day' (or 'Universal Mind Control'). Just 'Be' like the 'Finding Forever' music of the new millennium that changed the game on a more positive tip. 'The Dreamer/The Believer'. Representing this Chicago streets in black and white like 'Nobody's Smiling', or the dis-United States hoping to be 'Black America Again'. As we 'Let Love' rule like Lenny. This is Common music. And on the same New Music Friday as the grace of fellow legend Eminem give us 'The Death Of Slim Shady' for a great day in hip-hop, Common links up with another one in 'NY's Finest' producer Pete Rock. Makes sense.
Like the double decadence of 'A Beautiful Revolution' parts one and two, Common and Pete Rock give us 'The Auditorium, Vol 1.', and we're already crate digging for the second volume of work that rhymes like common sense's moment of clarity. Illuminating and amazing, like the album artwork at night of the theatre of kings with two walking below that could rival the Chicago one, or anything on and off Broadway. And if you don't know Notoriously, now it's time to 'Wise Up', like the street slick single for the people that's Common's best since his 'Ghetto Dreams' with Nas, waking up that 'Respiration' with Talib Kweli and Mos Def as he breathed new life into Black Star. Rocking with Pete, Com raps "Three wise men came to visit where I've been/Thеy brought gifts with the southside blend/Onе had Hennessy—the other, a book of street ministry/The third gave a mirror and told me to remember me (Huh)/Assemblies of similes and metaphors/Analogies that's analog/The reservoirs I come from, n####s got the dog in 'em (Woof)," before the MC Shan chorus on this true throwback like an LL Cool J bucket hat for your baseball cap.
Get those tracksuits back on, B-boys and girls. It's time to pop and lock again from the jazzy intro to the soulful outro, and 'All Kinds Of Ideas' like the single, or 'Dreamin'' live sessions for Vevo Ctrl and Jimmy Fallon's The Tonight Show performance of 'When The Sun Shines' featuring the prolific Posdnous and the brilliant Bilal. The truest testament of that school, "For me, this all started with A Dream," Common typed out on his IG. "A Dream to let the world know I’ve been here. A dream to be a part of Hip Hop. A Dream to MC at a level where De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, KRS-One and Ice Cube knew who I was. It’s been a dream of mine to work with the LEGENDARY Pete Rock (on more than just one song). I’ve been Dreamin’ my whole life." And this amazing 'Auditorium' for your audio players really does start with a dream too, like DeBarge.
"Baby, we could do it/.Take your time, do it right/I was hearin' melodies and rhythms through the night/This was a dream that felt real like a fight/What made it realer, J Dilla was there in the light/A movement was happenin', H. Brown was rappin' it/And Kool G and Polo talkin' 'bout they back again/I seen Prince; he was time-travellin'/Through the Morris Days and Gladys Knights (Woo)/Sheila E. reminded me about the glamorous life/Ali was tellin' me why he had to fight/The struggle, he never left so we could have our rights/Biggie and Prodigy told me to grab the mic (Yeah)/I was shook; now ain't no such thing 'cause when I touch dreams, they become things/As the sun beam, I seen queens like Latifah/Chaka as I daydream with Aretha (Woo)", Sense says today on 'Dreamin'', sampling Franklin as such. To be Frank, you'll remember this one as it resonates in real time.
For Chicago, man, like Lupe Fiasco, Common Rock sample 'Ye for 'Chi-Town Do It', reminding us of the good ole days we wish could just 'Be'...'Forever'. Missed like the raps of Pops. All for the Common good. Music. Show 'em how you get down! 'This Man' is something, rapping, "I drop a gem in the ocean/Soundwaves of underground days put this man in motion/I quarterback/Like Water raps/And Chocolate supported that on stage, my daughter rap/She was an infant, now she see infinity/I'm a gentleman, I let 'em down gently/Good energy around/Born to fly but still see the ground, in life, I rebound/Like Draymond to get green, I've been on the inseam of big things," over beats that Rock for a golden state of mind...and rhyme.
There's more reason to the man who pens many a profound book too (his latest, 'And Then We Rise'), and his inspiration. From 'We're On Our Way', to 'Fortunate' from this son of H.E.R. whose penmanship reads like scripture. A ghetto gospel to song titles that sound and rap like the same affirmations you should repeat to yourself day-by-day as you rap in the mirror. His rhymes, sharper than the razor's edge of that glass that shatters. Cracking the top five, dead or alive again with lines like, "I jam on anything I am on/About to blow like I'm tryna keep my hands warm/God MC, I camе in a man's form/When I return to dust, it'll be a sandstorm/Tell the people the Master got plans for 'em/Pour a little liquor when I know my man's gone/Over broads, I'm never tender/With love, I force MD's to surrender/Ancient remedies that my gramps will remember//What I rely on, I'm a king like Simba/The people's agenda in my heart/Serve rappers à la carte/You playin' yourself, you shoulda never got the part/This is hip-hop theater," on 'Stellar' by starlight.Scream all you want like Julia Louis-Dreyfus in 'Seinfeld', but this is no act from the 'American Gangster' star who did scenes with Denzel, while Jay-Z who used to want to rap like him, laid down the soundtrack.
Bilal comes 'round again with 'So Many People', Rock even raps on 'All Kind Of Ideas', and the star power gets real big and bright with 'Dreamgirl' Jennifer Hudson on 'A GOD (There Is)', maybe the most beautiful thing since 'Love Is'. It's not hard to see. But believe it on tracks like the 'Lonesome' tears deep and dark dive ("In the cycle, I spin like Michael Jackson/Moonwalkin', I do often, I knew loss in/Places where hurt tried to find its home/Like I'm tryna buy a house, I find myself a loan/When love is in the air with the wind, I be gone/My grandma say "You don't wanna die alone"), or 'Everything So Grand' with PJ for the PJs, this black Beatle is still giving it to us 'Now and Then'. Even if the city of wind is losing the power of its fallen stars like the retirement of MJ, after what happened with R. Kelly and Kanye. Lonnie Lynn is still here to put on for his city. As classic as the cover, this auditorium is atmospheric and something you won't forget. Until the second part gives us magic like Nas and Hit-Boy. Get your tickets. The seats are going up fast. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Wise Up, 'Chi-Town Do It', 'Lonesome'.
Spin This: Common - 'A Beautiful Revolution (Pt. 1)'. Pete Rock - 'NY's Finest'.
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