“Live From the DJ Stretch Armstrong Show with Bobbito the Barber” feat Black Thought, Common, Pharoahe Monch, and Absolute. The following group of records mark a bridge between the workmanlike boom bap of Common’s first three LP’s and the neo-soul makeover he would maximize from 2000 and beyond. The quickest way to stack some change and titillate his hardcore fans was to align himself with Rawkus Records, Hi-Tek, Pete Rock, The 45 King, Dug Infinite, and The Beatnuts. Common in 1998 wasn’t getting a million dollar advance from any label – he would have to double down on the backpackers and purists to survive into the new millennium. Needless to say, Def Jam wasn’t blowing up his pager as he neared free agency from Relativity Records.īut what Common lacked in Soundscan returns, he more than made up for with the True Heads, the diehards who bought Resurrection first week (all 2,000 units sold), who thought rap HAD moved to the suburbs and dressed hippy, who played “Resurrection (Xtra P Remix)” on mixshows and college radio, who thought Ice Cube got cooked on “The Bitch in Yoo”. He had no major co-signs, no dominant crew, and repped Chicago. Common, of the classic songs “I Used to Love H.E.R” and “Soul by the Pound”, was being outpaced by a retail mixtape. In 1997, his third album, One Day It’ll All Make Sense sold 250K units at a time when Funkmaster Flex’s 60 Minutes of Funk Vol. Back in 1998, Common was a middling rapper in between record deals. His last two No-ID assisted LPs The Dreamer, The Believer, and Nobody’s Smiling yielded no radio hits and minimal sales, but restored grit to a catalog chock full of painful pop culture references and odd experiments ( Universal Mind Control, anyone?).īut there was a brief moment in time before Common jumped a tax bracket, when he wasn’t a Soulquarian, an Okayplayer, or an unofficial spokesman for Nag Champa. Since hitting the small screen on the TV show “Girlfriends” in 2003, Common has been more famous but musically spotty. The J Dilla produced hit “The Light” led to his first platinum plaque for Like Water For Chocolate, which led to Gap and Coca-Cola ads, which led to the Neptunes and Mary J Blige hit “Come Close”, which led to the Kanye assisted Be and its follow-up, Finding Forever (both went platinum). What created Common: Reliable Nose Chopping Actor was the breakthrough of Common: Platinum Rapper back in 2000. ![]() Common is also currently filming a movie called Hunter Killer because you need a guy who wore afghan mittens and scarves to dig deep into his blackened heart as he pretends to break someone’s legs. Never has a more sensitive, smiling rapper been cast in such projects as John Wick 2, Terminator: Salvation, Wanted, Street Kings, American Gangster, and Smokin’ Aces. When you think “Face Tatted Henchmen” under the thumb of Jared Leto’s Joker in Suicide Squad, you naturally think of Common. ![]() Zilla Rocca’s rhyme is better than yours.
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