common - like water for chocolate - C/D

his verses have always had pretty wince-worthy lines whether it was 'bitch as missy' on lwfc or 'grammatics that are masculine' on resurrection. his flow was more 90s acrobatic on resurrection so if u prefer that aesthetic yeah yr gonna prefer resurrection but on balance i dont think theres really anything about that record that is somehow superior to lwfc & at least lwfc doesnt really sound like any other rap record, incl the other soulquarian records from the time

yeah, but it sounds like a bunch of other R&B records from the same time, and I'd much rather put on Voodoo or Mama's Gun than Common's third-best album, which hasn't really aged that well (Great beginning, some hot jams in the middle, ending is fucking sloooooow).

I'm from Chicago as well, and honestly the only thing that comes to mind when I think of growing up there is R. Kelly and 2Pac, which was just about all I heard on the radio growing up (and even, to an extent, when I go home to visit, whether it's the fact that they still rock the R constantly or that they play the shit out of 2Pac's Greatest Hits on GCI's Old School Sundays or whenever). Chicago is a musically fecund city and so you will inevitably hear lots of music with lots of different perspectives.

Anyways, the way that Resurrection evokes Chicago is mostly in its selection of beats, which rely heavily on old jazz and soul records that were pretty ubiquitous--maybe not on the radio--but in drugstores and diners and bodegas. I wasn't hearing Twista or Do or Die--those were very much regional (and regional within Chicago) rap records--so the way Common is able to evoke a Chicago aura is also very similar to the way he invokes a rich sense of tradition and history, rather than the endless polemics and junior college "philosophy" that he raps about now. Whether or not you feel that '90s b-boy academic style, it's, linguistically, infinitely more interesting and captivating than practically anything he's done since.

u forgot about bone thugs -- that shit was everywhere

Also, your line "Chicago sound is like..."; Adrenaline Rush should probably be replaced by Mobstability.

NO CRUCIAL CONFLICT NO CREDIBILITY!

^always loved them for weirdly having a mid-80s hardcore band name for some reason.

I'd love to rep for CC or DoD, but the Twista albums slay both of them, on the whole.

I regret slagging junior college students above--I was mostly referring to a certain strain of junior college student that's all over Chicago; didactic, weed-blazing (dudes mostly) who have ridiculous and misinformed superiority complexes.

rolling autogoon thread 2009

yo random chicago dude check out our rolling rap music thread

Also, your line "Chicago sound is like..."; Adrenaline Rush should probably be replaced by Mobstability.

― talrose, Thursday, March 19, 2009 2:19 PM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i meant the single. traxter in general

xpost - fucknuts, it doesnt really sound like any other rap record of the time but who cares? it sounds like plenty neo soul records of the time. which isnt really what i want from a common record. you know something is wrong when dangelos album has an overall tougher sonic aesthetic than commons album.

common was already going a little bit soft on one day which is fine as his flow was still limber but he got more stilted on lwfc and overall i think that the move from chicago where he was not 'accepted' by all his heroes hurt him a little - as soon as he got the ok from de la, tribe and co on the one day album he lost something. also, i think hes just better working with more standard boom bappy producers whether it be ynot, no id, doug infinite or even kanye, rather than dilla, even though i do like the unusualness of tracks like cold blooded and heat.

i love the shit out of this album, especially the warm and languid second-half. 'song for assata' might be the most poyser-ific song of the entire soulquarians period. i think this one has my favorite pops rap too.

this is the only common record i care about any more but his voice just kinda grates on me now since he starting doing all those annoying poetry commercials. Heat is one of my fav dilla beats.

i still think his voice sounds great in the right context, and few rappers could lock into dilla rhythms like he did. i agree it can be hard to put the gap commercials/songs from selma/general corniness

this alb in particular has plenty of instrumental hooks/licks that you can pay attention to instead of the lyrics lol.

yeah i guess i just dont need to listen to him for a while. wait til all these commercials (the microsoft one is still on all the time) run their course and then revisit at some point.

i miss beats that sound like nag champa.

guess I've avoided all those commercials. only thing I seen him do lately was the all star game intro and that was pretty cheesy.
totally surprised me that Dilla basically looped a 1 yr old song to make "Heat".

i used to have the instrumentals for this on vinyl. shit was dope. still my favorite common album. soulquarian apex.

'nag champa' comes from here because james yancey was extremely brilliant. but ya'll already knew that.

so going back and reading the origins of this topic, here's some thoughts. . .

i bought every common album from resurrection thru finding forever on its` release date. up to, and including, electric circus he was my favorite music maker, full stop. like water for chocolate was the peak of my interest in him, so i can't really judge it objectively. it was such a watershed record for me when it came out. it introduced, and simultaneously solidified, so many things that i still hold onto as a music fan.

that said: if you're just talking common at his peak as a rapper, it was the beginning of his decline.

but musically? that didn't fucking matter.

this and electric circus are immaculately produced records. regardless of how you feel about the lyrical content of those albums, the beats —which it feels reductive to even refer to them as that— are stellar. top gear, all the way, all the time.

i stopped paying attention after universal mind control. the bigger they are, the harder they etc., etc.

here's how i'd rank the ones that were on my radar:

1. like water for chocolate
2. resurrection
3. one day it'll all make sense
4. electric circus
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5. can i borrow a dollar?
6. be
7. finding forever
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.
.
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.
.
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.
.
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8. universal mind control

i've heard a song or two from things past that and it seems like really corny adult contempo hiphop. i mean, i guess it could be argued that that's what he had been doing ever since like water for chocolate. but those newer ones just feel kind of soulless. and as near as i can tell, he's become especially repetitious. it's lost a bit of its` lustre after the nth iteration.

okay i'm gonna go back and listen to all of his albums that i ignored and will be posting thoughts here. starting this morning with the dreamer, the believer from 2011.

about halfway through and it seems like be redux. he sounds not bad on the mic, lots of good samples, definitely has that soulful common vibe. he's still totally misogynistic, which, for me, negates the impact of some of his more well-intentioned and articulated rhymes. it's solid, but nothing surprising has happened at all.

okay, it ends quite strong. kind of the usual with com albums/the "pop's rap" series. bookended by the highlights, it does feel a bit overlong. not unlistenable, but nothing about it makes me excited to listen again anytime soon. 3 mics.

welp, halfway through nobody's smiling and it's more of the same. beats are just a bit "harder." he does sound a bit more fired up, he's just saying the same thing over and over: we seen it, we lived it, and we ain't havin it. okay, cool?

okay, foot into mouth- "rewind that" is fucking dope and easily my favorite thing since be.

his albums always end really strong, so here we go...

okay so yeah, definitely better on the second half. and i was listening to the deluxe edition, so "rewind that" is actually the end. he sounds engaged on the last few tracks and "young hearts run free" is another easy highlight. still same kind of vibe overall: ambition is apparent, but execution is unenthusiastic. certainly not awful, just all feels a little second tier. at least it has some legit memorable highlights. lonnie lynn sr passed away in 2014 and his contribution is sorely missed. 3 mics.

on to black america again and the first two songs feature bilal. ahh boy.

okay i'm taking off my cynical jerk hat now and i will say: about halfway through baa and it's easily his best since electric circus. he doesn't sound forced at all here. too much posturing on the previous two albums, but this feels like the old common who actually gives a fuck. beats are stellar (+some are fairly weird) and it's a damn fine representation of actual adult contempo hiphop. stevie wonder hollering about rewriting black anerican history is kind of a mindblowing moment in his catalogue. like it feels full circle that he had lauryn singing a stevie song on one of his old albums and he talked about changing the dynamic of black families... and then almost 2 decades later, he fets the official cosign from stevie himself.

still getting through it, but this is an easy 4 mics. too many highlights to start listing. fucking solid.

"little chicago boy"

not even gonna front: i have tears rn

don't care of i sound like a cornball, this is a beautiful album, holy smokes. again: easily his best in over a decade at that point. very firm and mighty 4 mics. even bilal and john legend couldn't fuck it up.

(lol, put my cynical jerk hat back on for a sec)

gonna take a detour into the august greene album...

the august greene album is good! it's glasper+riggins, so the beats are that chunked up synth jazz boombap and com continues to sound reinvigorated. it is a bit dour at times, but very soulful. the track with brandy was unexpected and it's a legit excellent radio jam that hits at the perfect time in the album's sequence. a very good record that plays like a sort of unofficial epilogue to black america again. a very solid 3.5 mics and a pleasant surprise.