Most Anticipated of 2007

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. will be blessing us all with another album at some point this year. Common, as most of us know him, will be dropping his 7th album, "Finding Forever", sometime this summer/fall. It's slated right now to drop on July 10 on Kanye's G.O.O.D. Music label. Common's last album, "BE", was arguably the best hip-hop album of 2005 and still gets plenty of rotation in my cd changer. And whether you believe it or not, he might just be your favorite rapper's favorite rapper:

"Truthfully I wanna rhyme like CommonSense [but I did 5 mill]/
I ain't been rhymin' like Common since/" -- Jay-Z

I'm looking forward to this album from Common because I know I can count on him to produce thoughtful, thought-provoking, well-written, and conscious lyrics. It's a change of pace from the cookie-cutter club tracks being produced by rappers nowadays and the same ole' gangsta talk or ultra-swag that everybody seems to have nowadays.

I can count on Common (working with Kanye) to concoct some head-nod-producing beats and an overall cohesiveness to the album that'll make it listenable from beginning to end. Common is definitely one of the most slept-on, under-rated, and under-successful rappers of my generation. By under-successful I mean that he deserves far more acclaim and industry success than he's achieved up to this point. Though he's probably not struggling for money with his GAP endorsements, movie roles, and hat line that's coming, I'm sure he wouldn't mind receiving a little more praise for his favorite occupation as a rapper. Forgive me, his favorite occupation as a hip-hop artist.

My favorite Common song is "The Light" off his "Like Water For Chocolate" album in 2000. Specifically, this snippet:

Few understand the union of woman and man
And sex and a tingle is where they assume that it land
But that's fly by night for you and the sky I write
For in these cold Chi night's moon, you my light
If heaven had a height, you would be that tall
Ghetto to coffee shop, through you I see that all
Let's stick to understandin and we won't fall
For better or worse times, I hope to me you call
So I pray everyday more than anything
friends will stay as we begin to lay
this foundation for a family - love ain't simple
Why can't it be anything worth having you work at annually
Granted we known each other for some time
It don't take a whole day to recognize sunshine

You can read the lyrics to the entire song here. Second to "The Light" is "The 6th Sense", off the same album. Hopefully the new albums brings about some new favorites to add to my list.

I had the opportunity to meet Common back in 2005 right after BE came out. He was as cool as you thought he'd be. Pleasant and easy to talk to, even if they were rushing you so other people could get his autograph. Fortunately, I was able to get this picture with Com and my man Big J.



I'm going to jump out on a limb and say that "Finding Forever" will probably be one of my favorite albums of 2007. Up to this point I don't have a favorite album yet even though several artists have dropped albums this year. In the past year or so, my musical tastes have changed a bit and I'm beginning to wonder whether it's a result of my growth as a person, musicians helping me grow and helping to open my mind to new types of music, or a combination of both. Regardless of what it is, I'm glad that I'm noticing a change and that the change is for the positive. Less hard-core rap and more meaningful music. All this right after I pumped TI's Trap Muzik...EXACTLY!!!

Some other HIGHLY anticipated albums this year:

TI - TI. VS TIP

Beanie Sigel - Return of the MAC

Little Brother - Get Back

UGK - Underground Kingz

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II

Kanye West - The Graduation

Maxwell - Black Summer's Night

India.Arie - Testimony: Vol. 2, Love & Politics

Ne-Yo - Because of You

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DID YOU KNOW?

Common and the late J-Dilla were roommates? I didn't.