at a glance...

Hometown: Chicago, IL
First recordings: 1992

Members:
Common -rapping, singing, composing
?uestlove -executive production, drums
DJ Premier -production, turntables
Dug Infinite -production
D'Angelo -instruments, singing, production
Femi Kuti -cool music
Mos Def -rapping
MC Lyte -rapping
Cee-Lo -vocals
Slum Village -rapping

Bands in the family :
No I.D., Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu, The Roots, Beatnuts, Why Not Never the Less, Femi Kuti, Gang Starr, D'Angelo, Mos Def, Black Star, Goodie Mob, Slum Village, Rahzel, Ice Cube, Sadat X, Slick Rick, De La Soul, Jill Scott

Notes:
Born Lonnie Lynn in the tough-ass Stony Island section of Chicago's South Side, Common Sense sprang up in the early '90s with Can I Borrow A Dollar?, an underachieving melange of styles and producers that somehow managed to show everyone that he had uncommon lyrical abilities. After a short period of foundering, his second album, Resurrection, became one of the great underground rap records of the '90s, an intense but swinging affair of wildly imaginative rapping shot through with introspection. The most-known meta-rap track from that album, "I Used to Love H.E.R.," called gangsta rappers out their name and ignited a feud with Ice Cube that only ended with a mediation session hosted by Louis Farrakhan. After some lame California group claimed their right to his original nom du mic, Mr. Lynn relocated to New York and reappeared as Common for 1997's One Day It'll All Make Sense, a huge-scope album that featured contributions by Lauryn Hill, The Roots, and Erykah Badu. After guesting on most of the good hip-hop albums of the late '90s, Common now busts out with Like Water for Chocolate. He's known for his lyrical flow and his commitment to investigating important issues in his lyrics.

I've been a very committed Common fan ever since I first heard Resurrection, but I didn't really like One Day It'll All Make Sense as much as I wanted to. I thought it got bogged down in its own shit and that the best track on it belonged to a guest artist. But I'd heard rumblings and rumors that this one would be the super monster killer, and damned if those rumors didn't turn out to be true. The unparalleled flow of the Com is back in full effect. This album throws down the gauntlet in terms of skills, scope, and love for that beautiful hip-hop music.

It's apparent from the beginning of the disc that Com is on some next shit. While Femi Kuti is turning it out African-style on "Time Traveling," a rap starts bubbling up from deep in the mix and pulls you in with a strange blend of mysticism and personal insight: "Stakes are high like my uncle is/We both got problems/he never confronted his." I haven't heard anything like it on a rap record ever and I'm sure it's going to be imitated all over the place this year. There's some old-school soul singing in the background on great tracks like "Funky for You" and "The Light," and Cee-Lo from Goodie Mob lends his big ol' voice to "A Song for Assata," a seven-minute tribute to Black Panther Assata Shakur, a song that ends with Assata herself speaking on the phone from Cuba. And then there's the album's strangest cut, "A Film Called (Pimp)," in which Common and MC Lyte (!) trade verses about whether or not she should join his Afrocentric vegan stable of prostitutes. I can't think of anyone even trying to reach this high or do so much these days, except maybe The Roots, whose ?uestlove is Like Water's exec producer. It sounds great and futuristic, but it still all hangs together, and possesses much dopeness.

But it's not just about the ambition or all the neat sounds. This album also pays its dues, what with Lyte's guest shot, Mos Def's appearance on a version of Audio Two's "The Questions" with new funny lyrics, and a remake of Family Stand's joint "Ghetto Heaven" with D'Angelo. (Damn, I love that song.) This is both the future of hip-hop and its past at once. I still think Resurrection is Common's best work, but Like Water for Chocolate is already looking like the hip-hop album of the year. If it ain't, then this is gonna be one hell of a year. Jurassic 5 better bring it on if they want to beat this record.