April 6, 2000
Like Water For Chocolate
By focusing on life's minutiae, [a]Common[/a] deftly illustrates the bigger picture. Like all the great storytellers...
8 / 10
It weren't always multiple Wu-pseudonyms and verbose flights of mystical lyrical fantasy down hip-hop's way. Back in the day, rappers wove their rhymes from the neighbourhood, street poets quite literally keepin' it real. Chicagoan Rasheed Lynn, aka Common, is one such rhymer, equal parts philosopher and documentarian.
. On 'A Film Called (Pimp)' he's knocked on his ass by MC Lyte's street-smart hooker. They're tales of (extra)ordinary lives, humanising heroes and celebrating the 'common' experience.
If this all sounds a little dry, joyless, that's without reckoning on Common's sharp, warm rhyme style, dripping humour and an easy-going street wisdom (imagine Mos Def with dirty fingernails). Executive producer ?uestlove's swarming urban-phunk also sweetens the pill, a symphony of dub and drop-out and clipped grooves (check the sultry electro of 'Funky For You', the Femi Kuti -powered afrobeat-hop of the aforementioned 'Time Travelin'').
By focusing on life's minutiae, Common deftly illustrates the bigger picture. Like all the great storytellers.
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