Drivin’ Herself Crazy…
One of my favourite rap artists (and one of the few rappers you can call artists) working today is a gent by the name of Common. When he’s not acting in big budget movies with Jeremy Piven or cutting ads for Coca-Cola, he puts out albums that are consistently terrific. He’s done a lot of what some people call, “conscious hop-hop,” and his lyrics show a lot of intelligence and concern for America’s black community.
A big part of the appeal for me is a lack of bravado, ego, and arrogance in his music (even though most of his material – including his entire last album – is produced by Kanye). One of the standouts on his latest, Finding Forever, features guest vocals from one of this summer’s it-girls (Lily Allen), but what really steals the show is Common’s terrific use of pop-culture references to keep the song light while simultaneously calling out talented rappers who try too hard to be famous.
My favourites? Allusions to Lisa Nowak, the NASA astronaut who drove across the country wearing diapers to confront the woman who was dating a fellow astronaut she was obsessed with, and OKGO’s infamous treadmill video. Enjoy.
Common’s music (including his superior earlier albums) can be found:
iTunes: all over this thing
web store: one of few artists with their own mp3 web store
Hippie.