Common, in my opinion, is easily one of the best emcees alive. Throughout his career, his rhymes have shown a great deal of lyrical ability and complexity, using a wide array of poetic elements to explore a variety of topics. After his 2000, release Like Water for Chocolate, the rapper took some flack from critics due to the fact that this album was more commercial than his previous outings, and also because his lyrics seemed less complex than they had been in the past. But to me, he was just continuing a journey he began on Resurrection.

In 1994, the Chicago emcee released Resurrection, his sophomore LP. It was an excellent album, brimming with the rapper’s energetic and intricate flows, backed by producer No I.D.’s soothing jazz samples and other work behind the boards. But also, this album showed the beginning of a transition for the rapper; a shift from the showy, ostentatious technique that made him popular, to the more evocative style that earned him some well-deserved critical acclaim.

Track Listing
1. Resurrection
2. I Used To Love H.E.R.
3. Watermelon
4. Book Of Life
5. In My Own World (Check The Method)
6. Another Wasted Nite With...
7. Nuthin' To Do
8. Communism
9. WMOE
10. Thisisme
11. Orange Pineapple Juice
12. Chapter 13 (Rich Man Vs. Poor Man)
13. Maintaining
14. Sum Sh*t I Wrote
15. Pop's Rap

The album starts out with the title track “Resurrection”. For the beat, No I.D. loops a jazz piano melody over a moving bassline and a simple percussion arrangement. Common deftly raps one of his free association-type freestyles over the track. The song has a very mellow feel to it, that I like a lot.

Common had to have been having fun on track 3 “Watermelon”; it comes through in his voice when he raps. The rapper spits one of his better freestyles, jumping from one subject to another whenever he sees fit. No I.D. crafts a “country blues” sounding song using a strumming guitar and other various percussive elements. This song has that same kind of vibe as OutKast’s “Rosa Parks” , though the duo did a slightly better job at bringing out the blues elements. Still, “Watermelon”* is one of my favorite tracks on the CD.

“Sum Sh*t I Wrote” undeniably puts Common’s lyrical skills on display for the listener. There’s no topic; it’s just Com freestyling over a funky upright bass jazz loop provided by Ynot Never the Less. The rapper’s use of lyrical delivery works well with the music, and his words are always clever and entertaining. He drops these lyrics in the first verse:

“I get loose like a screw turned from left right to tight /
When it's time for some action I get Red's ‘Tonight's Da Night’ /
An eye for an eye, a life for what’s right /
Dissected I'm on some hi-tech sh*t computers want to bite /
Your style is Pascal, mine is Basic and just instinct… /”

Com delves into some self-analysis and introspection with his lyrics on “Book of Life” and also “Thisisme”. To help relay the seriousness on “Book of Life”, No I.D. drops the samples and jazz loops that he usually favors and instead allows the high hat and snare to drive the slower tempo song. The only elements he brings in to supplement the percussion is an uncomplicated bassline, sparse keyboard chords, some scratches, and a very short sample from Mary J. Blige’s “My Life”. On “Thisisme”, Common tries to define his role in the ever-changing Hip Hop universe through his lyrics. For this one, No I.D. creates “warm and fuzzy” accompaniment with long synthesizer notes, piano notes, and unpretentious drums.

“I Used to Love H.E.R.” is probably Common’s most popular song ever. Over a jazz melody sample with a dominant bass line, the rapper raps about a woman he used to have a deep and emotional relationship with. He talks about how he met her when he was very young, and how over time her success warped her into a person he’s not sure if he likes anymore. At the end of the song he lets the listener know that the relationship with this woman is just a metaphor for his love of Hip Hop. The degradation of the “woman” represents the decline of Hip Hop music after commercial success forced it into the mainstream:

“I might've failed to mention that the chick was creative /
But once the man got to her, he altered the native /
Told her if she got an image and a gimmick /
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy /
Now I see her in commercials, she's universal /
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle /
Now she be in the ‘burbs lookin’ rock and dressin’ hippie /
And on some dumb sh*t, when she comes to the city /
Talkin' about poppin’ glocks, servin’ rocks, and hittin’ switches /
Now she's a gangsta, rollin’ with gangsta b*tches /
Always smoking’ blunts and getting drunk /
Telling me sad stories, now she only f*cks with the funk /
Stressing how hardcore and real she is /
She was really the realest, before she got into showbiz /
I did her, not just to say that I did it /
But I'm committed, but so many ni**az hit it /
That she's just not the same letting all these groupies do her /
I see ni**az slammin’ her, and takin’ her to the sewer /
But I'm a take her back hoping that the sh*t stop /
Cause who I'm talking bout y'all is Hip Hop /”

I highlight this track specifically because “I Used to Love H.E.R.” is almost completely different from most of the other tracks on the album. For most of Resurrection, Common rips the mic using his distinct combination of witty metaphors and clever wordplay all in rapid-fire succession. However, for “I Used to Love H.E.R.”, he mostly abandons this complicated lyrical technique in favor of a simpler style to help him relay the emotion and meaning contained within the lyrics.

This aspect is what most reminds me of jazz legend Miles Davis. Davis started coming into his own at the height of the bebop era, when subdivision, speed, and musical agility were king. Unfortunately, with all the emphasis on playing an insane amount of notes in as little time as possible, many felt that a lot of the meaning was being lost in the music. Davis and a few other jazz musicians who felt the same way started what would eventually become a major movement in the genre, called “cool jazz”. Cool Jazz is generally a great deal more relaxed than bebop; a revolution against bebop’s fast tempos and complex harmonic and melodic ideas. Though not as “flashy” as many of the bebop compositions, cool jazz music has a soul of it’s own that you just don’t hear, you feel. Like Davis, Common also chose to abandon some of the more popular “showy” facets of his rhyming, in order to be able to better convey thoughts and emotions of significance. This change resulted in some terrific later works that actually carried some real weight, including “G.O.D. (Gaining One’s Definition)”, “Song for Assata”, and “6th Sense”.

While some fans who were disappointed in Like Water for Chocolate constantly clamor for the return of the old “Resurrection” Common, if you ask them what his greatest work is, they’ll unquestionably respond with “I Used to Love H.E.R.”. Ironically, the style of rapping he uses on this track has much more in common with most of his later works than it does with the rest of Resurrection.

Comparisons aside though, Resurrection is definitely an impressive rap album. Common’s lyrical delivery is complex, poetic, and acrobatic, but still manages to land nimbly on a variety of relevant topics. No I.D. is great with the tracks, though his use of jazz samples does get a little repetitive. The only significant downside to Resurrection is when Ynot dares to touch the microphone. He tries to mimic Common’s intricate flows and solid delivery, but fails miserably 95% of the time. Luckily, Ynot’s guest appearances are few and far between.

Only time will tell if Common will be as great an influence to Hip Hop as Miles Davis was to Jazz, but he’s definitely on the right track so far. His work on and after this album show a dedication to exploring the limits of Hip Hop. If you’re a rap fan and haven’t yet purchased Resurrection by Common, I highly recommend that you add it to your collection, simply because it’s just not complete without it. You will not be disappointed.





Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Hanging With Friends