COMMON – The Light (from the album Like Water For Chocolate)
Greg brings up “The 6th Sense” which is the first single from the
new Common album in his last post. He mentions how it has the
intelligence for the street and the beat for the clubs, which it
indeed does. What the post reminded me of was this track
taken from the same album which I’d argue has an even
stronger club beat and makes better use of an R&B chorus.
Common is one of the sole hip-hop acts I can think of who
uses R&B in an intelligent manner. Even still, I’ve read reviews
on the rap sites and on the newsgroups that feature the
masses carping about Common “selling out,” so I think to
that one portion of the hip-hop community, Common is losing
a bit of cred for his forays into the club sound, Premier’s
production notwithstanding. And on the other hand,
I freely admit that it’s been a while since I’ve been to a club,
but I’m not sure even that in there Common is getting play
(though I could be wrong).
Efforts like “The 6th Sense” sort of scream out to me “record
company mandate” more than anything else, for when one
looks at the actual album, it isn’t typified by tracks like
“The 6th Sense.” As much as I admire artists like Common,
I usually squirm when I hear tracks like this put forth as the
first single unless it’s something of uncommon quality (no pun
intended), and in this case I don’t find that to be the case. But
a man’s got to eat, I suppose. Here’s hoping he gets his
chance.