Category:
Hip-Hop

Try if you like:
Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Talib Kweli, The Roots

Depending on your perspective, Common is either a hip-hop renaissance man or a conflicted emcee, trying to be a little of everything to everyone. There’s Common the actor, appearing on TV and in the movies. And there’s Common the poet, performing duets with Maya Angelou and being invited to readings at The White House. Then, here on The Dreamer/The Believer, another version of Common that we haven’t seen for a while turns his head. That would be the hard as fuck street rapper, inexplicably using the track ‘Sweet’ to call out Drake, who is probably at this very moment staring longingly out the window on a transcontinental flight. 

Common has proudly talked about his lack of need for profanity, and his rhymes are oven laced with neo-hippie musings. ‘Sweet’ emphatically chucks all that out the window. Even apart from the grand view of his career, the track is out of place here, as a more recognizable Common quickly returns on ‘Gold’, in which he raps about how it was raining the day he was born. 

The label of poet is well-earned for Common – though his rhythm is occasionally sloppy, his lyrics are always among the best in hop-hop. The majority of The Dreamer/The Believer confirms that. ‘Sweet’ is jarring—and the decision to try to take on an equally laidback emcee in Drake is a strange one—but it’s not enough to derail another solid addition to Common’s legacy.