MIND INVERSION

A lot of people might totally hate on me, but I’ve never really been a huge Common fan, with the exception of Like Water For Chocolate. I honestly think that this album might be one of the best Hip-Hop albums of the last decade. The production put forth by Jay Dee and the Soulquarians is nothing short of perfect, and Common manages to compliment every single beat on this album the way it should be. Jay Dee did a great majority of the production and he absolutely killed the beats on this record. In my opinion this album is and always will be a classic. Most emcees wish that they could drop an album this good.

The first track that I really like on the album is “Heat” which is a funky ass tune which Jay Dee produced. It features groovy ass guitar chords and a nice uptempo bass line. The track “Dooinit” is sure to have you snapping your fingers and nodding your head like a bobble head doll. Common laces the track with some brutal bars, “Performing warming arts with some shit for the heart/don’t fuck with the radio ignoring the charts/I could give a fuck what you made in a year nigga you whack/a soft nigga on a hard track in this new rap”. Dilla laces the track “The Light” with one of the best samples I’ve ever heard and Common writes a track about a lady so beautiful words can barely describe her, “…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’d be that tall/ghetto to coffee shop, through you I see that all”. Dilla provides the mellow yet very melodic canvas for “Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For the World)” and he also provides some beautiful singing as well. Tracks like “Nag Champa” & “The Light” showcase how in sync Common and Dilla were. Slum Village joins common on the track “Thelonius” (it was also on Fantastic Vol. 2) and Dilla’s piano driven beat makes for a perfect fit for all of the emcees featured.

My favorite track on this album (surprisingly) isn’t produced by Dilla. It was actually produced by DJ Premier, and of course that track is none other than “6th Sense”. Premo laces this beat with beautiful horns and looped piano keys, and it may be one of the finest beats I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing, and his cuts are pretty close to untouchable. Common spitefully spews some wicked words, “If revolution had a movie I’d be theme music/my music, you either fight, fuck, or dream to it/my life is one big rhyme, I try to scheme through it/through my shell, never knew what the divine would bring to it”. This track is one that should be heard by everyone.

This album has everything you could want in a classic album from the perfect production, to the copious amount of conscious rhymes. This album also showcases the chemistry between Jay Dee and Common, and boy was it amazing. Every Hip-Hop head in the world should own this album.

9.5 And Ya’ Say Chi City’s out of 10

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Music Reviews, Wildstyle Wednesdays with tags Common, DJ Premier, J Dilla, Like Water For Chocolate, Slum Village, Soulquarians. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.