The Very Good Agency

Common – new album

Common, the artist formerly known as Common Sense, has released his eighth studio album ‘Universal Mind Control’ opening the album with the title track advising, “This is the new [stuff] and it don’t feel the same.” so it will be interesting to see which way he has gone with this album. Produced mostly by Neptunes super producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, it’s surprising Common has time to continue to pump albums out at the rate he does with his Hollywood career seeing him in a long line of successful and not so successful films over the last few years.

Common – Universal Mind Control on the Jimmy Kimmel show

Electro beats appear to be the thing this year with Common and some of his friends like Kanye West adding a robotic sound and breakbeat edge to their beats, something that may not go down so well with old school aficionados, but at the same time could open up their appeal to a whole new market of dance music fans. Another massive change in his lyrics stand out too going from an advocate of equality and respect for women to a kind of horny school boy (again much like Kanye). After enjoying Common’s music for so long, usually with a down to earth twist on hip hop rapping about the realities, struggles, and beauty faced by everyday people, it’s hard to adjust to a more glamorous, party boy theme that he seems to have going lately, kinda begging the question also if his transition is for musical exploration or mass appeal.

An artist like Common, who has given so much to the art and culture of hip hop deserves the chance to branch out, and i’m going to listen to ‘Universal Mind Control’ a few times before passing final judgement on it, but there is one thing that he and I can agree on for sure…

“This is the new [stuff] and it don’t feel the same.”

Common feat. Lauryn Hill – Retrospect for Life

You can check out more of Common at:

www.common-music.com

www.myspace.com/common

…bs

Tags: Collaborations, hip hop

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