Common- Finding Forever

Be is one of my favorite albums of the past few years. I've heard a few things from the new one, but none of them have stuck.

<i>My daughter found Nemo/ I found the new Primo...</i>

I've always liked this guy. Well, except for Electric Circus, but no one liked that.

damn, when I get that it's [ ] and not < >

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this album... both "The People" and "The Game" are excellent. There are some questionable lyrics (as always with Common), but the beats are awesome and he seems to be in top shape flow-wise....

I had a friend, upon finding out how much I love Be, try to play me Electric Circus while raving about how much better he was on that record, before he "went commercial". My tongue nearly reached back into my throat and asphyxiated me out of pity. And the worst thing is it was a cute lady friend, so I couldn't even really be mean to her. She did give me a Stones Throw decal that I've never used, though.

I am still on record as loving Electric Circus. And yes, I'm the only one. I have been clowned by many but I don't care.

its another bland common album...

the opening like four lines of "the game" might be my favorite ten seconds in rap this year.

I still listen to Like Water For Chocolate, mostly the first couple tracks.

I have still never heard Electric Circus. I willfully ignore Can I Borrow A Dollar?

I am just now getting into One Day It'll All Make Sense.

The other half of dude's discog is golden. I'm cautiously looking forward to this.

he still wears a very nice hat

really gives him a What's Going On vibe.

I remember the TIME article on him back in December described his head as "elegantly bald."

Ya, I think WGO is what he's going for, unfortunately.

why "unfortunately"

I can't say he's done much musically or lyrically I give a shit about, but I do admire the hat every time I see an ad he's in.

THE QUEENPIN!

why "unfortunately"

-- J0hn D., Wednesday, July 18, 2007 12:32 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

because he is also in gap commercials

CORNY gap commercials. i mean its not as bad as this
http://www.voic.us/files/marvin%20gaye%20hennessey.jpg

but i dont think marvin really had a say

the reasoning still eludes me here: is it "he is evoking an artist who I would think of as being above ads/endorsements"?

no no, i don't mean this as some kind of anti-commercial statement or something. i just mean he's attempting to evoke this Serious Concerned Artist persona and yet he's making tacky ads about keeping it good in the hood (get it? he means "hoodie") and kissing under the mizell with dave chapizzelle. Its not like, morally offensive to me, its just inconsistent and his music these days isn't really making up for it.

i do love resurrection and like water for chocolate, tho
i would even defend parts of electric circus

If I had been driving when I first saw that Hennessey billboard I might have crashed. Should have had a picture of his dad!

Dimension 5ive, you have my support. I like Electric Circus too.

i just mean he's attempting to evoke this Serious Concerned Artist persona

otm.

I say "unfortunately" because often when artists deal with weighty issues their craft suffers. I have no immediate evidence that this has happened or will happen with Com, but it's what makes me "cautiously" anticipate the album.

And no I'm not saying WGO was evidence of "craft suffering" etc

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/398201.jpg

that is really a terrible cover

wwwtf

from the URB (lol) review:

2005’s Be found Common fi nding Kanye West and his inner grown ass man, and both shined brightly as the record balanced the pair’s patented soul and Common’s rediscovered fire. . .but it still wasn’t hard. Finding Forever, Common’s spectacular seventh full-length, isn’t “The Bitch in Yoo,” but it is his hardest release since. That’s not to say he’s replaced the soul with a trunk full of crack, but lead single “The Game” certainly shows off this return to gully.

they should change their name to the urb lol

common is such a putz at rapping and talked some anti gay shit when i saw him one time. fuck this guy.

more like return to ferngully

That’s not to say he’s replaced the soul with a trunk full of crack, but lead single “The Game” certainly shows off this return to gully.

lol @ using "gully" as a noun.
i think i would like prodigy a lot more if his album was called Return of the Gully.

I Used To Like H.I.M.

my daughter found nemo I returned to ferngully

hahaaaa

I predict roughly 14 boring tracks about earth tone scarves, Oparah's book club, and overcoming global climate change.

it has 3 good songs

the rest is snoozeable hip hop boredom as only common can do

I love when dudes show up and make absolute pronouncements.

I don't like Common though. He just can't rap on beat, which annoys my ears.

On most of Resurrection he sticks pretty tightly to it.

I admit I haven't gotten too far with him since I bought 'Like Water for Chocolate' and couldn't take much of it, so yeah could be wrong.

Yeah I actually really hated LWFC for a while, it's only in the last few months that it's really clicked for me. I still can't sit and listen to it all in one sitting, though.

I don't get that as a criticism in general, especially as a criticism of Common, who occasionally strikes me as too beat-bound. I very much prefer rappers who use rhythms in interesting ways.

(xps)

Yeah, I thought Rakim saved us from the old school approach of only hitting strongly on the one and three. Are we so ungrateful?

seconded xpost

Well, the point is that the way he raps is simply quite annoying, but of course we all like MCs who rap in interesting ways. I'm not maniacal about things being exactly on-beat at all, but Common does not rap in a way that flows with the music / beats that are backing him up. Too often he'll have something he wants to fit into a verse so he'll just shove it all into one line, and it's like he forgets that there is actually music going on behind him. A valid criticism that many, many people notice I'm sure.

dude used to be called Common Sense, had to change it. He could have gone with Sense. He chose Common, despite the easy dis, probably because of the hard consonant. Nuff said.

Common does not rap in a way that flows with the music / beats that are backing him up.

Well, I happen to disagree with your basic premise, so there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SbuPOOPnzw

Check out the 2:00 point on this, and you'll see exactly what I mean. Love the music, then he's stumbling all over himself.

Okay, that is a bit weird, but doesn't bug me too much.

Second from last is ... what?

this leaked, btw.

so far, it's pretty good. i'm really enjoying "drivin' me wild". and i usually hate rap songs with cutesy female choruses.

"drivin me wild" sounds like com doing a lily allen song rather than the other way around... which is how things might have to go for lily allen, ahem, "rap" songs to work.

is it lily allen singing on that?
hmm...

bah. i completely missed the link up there.

those lines about nemo and primo and rocky and martyrs arent meant to be good are they?

i don't think so, no.

a hell of a lot more important than ONE WORD dropped randomly into a song

"Brokeback" = homophobic slang with an early-2006 expiration date.

Maybe artistic integrity demanded that he say, in addition to defending the humanity of gays, that he doesn't want them coming anywhere near him.

Whatever, I tuned out after that Gap ad.

*slow clap*

"In the days and days that I spent researching this story, because I’m dedicated like that, I came across some photographic evidence which I believe reveals the true source of Common’s obvious distaste for a good percentage of his own audience. When I pointed out a few years ago that Common’s obviously got some sort of thing against white people, a few people pointed out that Common is pretty light skinted himself and hence is probably the result of some hot miscegenation. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon a picture of Common posing with his mother, and damnit if she’s not whiter than half of the white people I know.

So you see, Common spends so much time these days lashing out at his own white audience because he realizes that he himself is part-white, and he fears he won’t be accepted by black people (was he ever?), unless he constantly goes about letting the world know that a white woman can’t do anything for him other than buy his albums and show up to his concerts. Which, if you think about it, is roughly tantamount to saying he hates his own mother.

Who’s the self-hater now?"

kanye? check.
lupe? check.
rhymefest? check.
why not common?

oh and john legend should be on there for all the kanye and john legen bufu "reports."
how could i forget.

Hoos, where is that quote from? That's crazy.

byron crawford.

Anybody buy this yet?

considering that it won't be in stores until next week, I'm guessing the answer is no.

*misused slow clap*

The album tracks are great audio wallpaper. Dude's sorta maddeningly in the pocket. ECM rap?

kanye? check.
lupe? check.
rhymefest? check.
why not common?

-- Jordan Sargent, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 4:24 AM

What was this in reference to?

Haha the album actually comes out and no ones gives a fuck anymore.

it is wack

kanye? check.
lupe? check.
rhymefest? check.
why not common?

-- Jordan Sargent, Tuesday, July 24, 2007 4:24 AM

What was this in reference to?

-- BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Saturday, August 4, 2007 3:27 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Link

byron crawford's internet beefs w/ chicago rappers.

Some nice zings here:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/common/finding-forever.htm

It's a solid album. Personally, I think it's more solid than "Be", but I know I'll get ripped on for saying that.

Still, "Be" had some slow, meandering shit on it that I skipped every time.

From Paul's link:

his lines are maladroit (it sounds as if he can barely fit a few feet into a line without stumbling into an ungainly break)

Hmmm. I suppose I'm not the only one who's noticed it then! BAN ILM.

It's the number one album in the country this week.

gettin that oprah money

the more i hear about this the more i'm mad that people are so unthinking about praising POSITIVE ARTISTS. this album is so so dull

the best track is the dilla one (again) but that was already on the shining

could never stand this guy

I'll never forgive him for that lame-ass "Compared to What" advertising spot

i purged this from my consciousness after the ok go/"crazy astronaut lady" lines.

I guess I'm gonna get sonned if I say I kinda like what I heard of the new PE.

This almost made me want to re-evaluate EC: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=14437053&blogID=296197155

debuted at #1

Next Common single:

That was the day my album
debuted at number one on the American pop charts
I wanted to see a Clipper game so I drove there in my car
We were like two birds flying down the highway toward social consciousness
Got to Staples but then oh man, oo-ee
Elton Brandt was hurt so instead we watched Ratatouille

I wanted to see a Clipper game so I drove there in my car

So many Common lyrics really are like this.

Yep. ;)

We were like two birds flying down the highway toward social consciousness

^^^ best Common lyric ever

All this complaining about the Gap and Coke ads strike me as really off, but then again I watch tv maybe about once a month.

Is this the thread to comment on the genius that is UGK's "Underground Kingz"? Life is (2009) with Too Short is just the best stripper track in a while...OK, wrong thread.

I listened to Electric Circus on my way home from work today and it still sounds great. Less concerned with lyrics; the instrumental textures on that thing are really really cool. But hey don't let me stop everyone from relentless hatitude -- more "clever" lyrics PLEASE.

About 75% of Finding Forever is a snooze. And the cover is indefensible.

i LOVE this record

eardrum >>>> finding forever

haha really? I mean I'm sure Finding Forever is terrible but not much grabbed me on my first listen of Eardrum. I actually like some of the Madlib tracks, though.

I love that Just Blaze track on Eardrum, but otherwise... :| But I hate Kweli's voice and I think he's an awful rapper, so maybe that's why...

After the travesty that was The Beautiful Stuggle, I can't imagine touching any new Kweli with a ten-foot pole.

Yeah, that album was garbage.

totally awful, agreed. also, that Just Blaze track sounds kinda boring and half-assed to me, even if it does kinda fit nicely into Eardrum's low-key vibe.