#2232 Common - Black Amercia Again

Reviewed late 11/18

aw fuck, here's where we hit the whole post trump thing head on.

because when I heard this circa 11/8, I still had hope, wavering, that shit might be in the right direction.

revisiting that space is a tough spot.

--

I have this pet theory that this and the Tribe album are two sides of the same coin.

I posited to Liam, local hip hop scholar of note, I'm learning -- that one hoped for a Hillary future, and one feared a Trump future. He agreed, that the Common record was way more somber.

He's not wrong, but I'd meant it the other way around: this seemed like the optimistic//Hillary one, to me. But then, maybe its because I heard it before the sword dropped, and the Tribe album after. Also, fuck if I didn't stumble onto The Day Women Took Over the World for the first time day of, and took it as a sign.

"_wrong_"

both recorded before, I'll take this as the final assessment: Common's record took on the Hillary future and wanted to tackle how shit was still broke despite that. Tribe said Trump's coming, but let's get by. paragraphs on a nonsense theory, sorry Common. #secretposttrump etc

--

It's a swirling, rich, poignant record.

It's packed with seething anger, hope, production that wraps around you.

The R&B-tinged romantic interludes (Love Star, Red Wine) don't work for me, but the screeds, the wanders, the retroactive-paeans like The Day Women Took Over, the pain, the *fucking opus* of the title track, the soaring Little Chicago Boy -- goddamn.

when the album bites in is when it works. when it recognizes the shitfuck we're all fucked in, is when it sticks.

it's a liquid record that moves on its own accord.

impossible not to appreciate.

--

even on 11/8 i heard Rain

and John Legend sings.

if its going to rain tomorrow, let it rain

and I felt that shiver of what might (did) come

it's like Common hoped on the previous track, but recognized that his hope might not come, and left this breadcrumb for us, just in case.

and maybe that fear's laced throughout.

this is an era of hip hop that knew there were two ways could go, and one way things were gonna go through weaving though that, and a hope to find that central thread and move it.

you don't hear Common himself all that strongly in this album. It's not a Kanye album, not a Kendrick record like that. it's a world record like that, reaching out low and wide, trying to draw in. and goddamn if we don't need more of that.

and conversely, to bring Kanye into the fold -- there's a Gospel cloth that Common draws himself into with his opening track, dropping reference to Ultralight Beam, which Chance (gospel revivalist himself) guested on -- 2016's getting back to believing, to sharing belief, to spreading the idea that maybe we're - - - -   -  -  -  -    -   -   -    -    -     -

--

"Common's in everything" Jo and I say sometimes, lately. He hosts, voices, advertises -- really turned a corner, culturally, lately. His identity as a rapper seems like an afterthought.

But there's something here.

When he really raps he's got it.

But he doesn't that much. And maybe there's something to that. He's an orchestrator here, laying out the stage and stepping aside, just an MC to a view on the world how he'd like it to be // how he fears it might be, hoping you'll find the way to the right way forward 4/5