In '97 Common dropped a LP i thought was one of the year's best! I was jammin it daily and i was thinkin man, this dude Common is a real artist people need to take notice! Well in 2000 he would get just that.
After his last LP Common was doin guest verses on alot of peoples records garnering alot of attention! With classic rhymes on "1999" & "Respiration" his name was starting to get out there. And people was wondering what he was comin wit next. In 2000 a new wave of music was starting to come forth called neo. People like Erykah Badu, D'Angelo & Bilal started a new wave of R&B called neo-soul. It was a very warm & soul sounding music that is incredible. Common was very into that alot and hooked up with a new production team called Soulquarians (Questlove, J-Dilla & D'Angelo) to try to bring this new style of music into hip-hop that they brought to R&B. Who knew that this new marriage would work so well?
Common's 1st single was "6th Sense" which was produced by my nigga Premier! Man, i remember hearing this record for the 1st time and was just happy as hell that Common did a track with Premier! It was a smart move cause he represented a song for the street and showed them that he didnt forget them. It was a nice set up for his 2nd single which was the now classic "The Light". This track to me put him up there in a another level across the world cause this track resonated with so many people. It was a feel good record! Plus this put the spotlight on a producer named J-Dilla, and people needed to take notice on this talented beat maker. When this joint was spinning it brings back great memories cause at the time i was livin in NJ and Hot 97 was on fire back then! I never thought that a radio station could be that dope but thats another story. Ok, so now Common had the people's ears and people was feenin for that LP to drop and i was one of them. What i didnt expect was that i would be soon conflicted about this album.
I copped this LP the day it dropped and i guess i was going into it that this LP would sound exactly like his last. I was expecting the same type of beats and everything. So when i listened to it for the 1st time i was mad dissapointed. I didnt like it at all. I loved "6th Sense" & "The Light", those were a given but everything else i wasnt feelin. And i was mad, i thought Common had let me down. This LP was sittin in my CD book for 4 years and i never took it out until 2003 when i gave it away. I never listened to it other than those 2 songs and that was it.
But that people was the old me music wise. Back in '07-'08 i had to go back re-do my whole thinking of hip-hop music and read the manuscripts. There was alot of things that i never heard that i had to hear and re-access music i thought was wack. So in '07 i re-bought this LP. And man im glad i did cause i just overlooked this LP. I realized that the music is different cause he was going neo hip-hop. Plus J Dilla played a huge part in LP with the beats. So when i re-listened to it my ears was opened. One of the songs that i now love is "The Questions"! I love this record, its like Common did a Jadakiss "Why" before Jada did it. The beat on this track is lovely man. I can repeat it all day. So i want to admit i made a mistake on this LP 11 years ago, but i made up for it.
Sometimes when u buy a LP u expect too much from it and when it doesnt meet ur expectations u give up on it. Then once time settles in and ur viewpoints changed u realize "hey that LP wasnt that bad at all". Just anaylze a LP the best u can and if u come to the ultimate conclusion whether it dope or wack is up to u, but just take the time out and think it over before u make judgements about it. Learn from me.
Ill give this LP 3 out of 5. This was the LP that put Common in the spotlight and he ran wit it ever since (exclude Electric Circus). Whats ur thoughts on this LP?
