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OVERALL RATING:Common is one of the few emcees on TV regularly that is from the 90's era. Two years ago Him and Mr. West blessed the 2000's with one of the best albums its ever heard. Now there back for Finding Forever an illRoots is here to tell you whether or not we think they came correct yet again.As we all know, Common is known for his signature interludes, but this time around he took the safe approach and came in with a Game Theory type of intro, slow and steady instruments. The first person who speaks is Kanye. That kind of scared me, but Common jumped right in afterward. He goes from diss to diss, its pretty much a Hip-Hop back slap to the new generation of "sell outs" I like it alot though. I am pretty sure everyone is familiar with The People, so I don't need to get into detail, I like this track though. The next track on the agenda is Drivin' Me Wild. The first thing I notice is the very annoying drums, but if you tune into what Common is spitting than this should be one of your favorite tracks on the album. The beat really hurts its replay value for me though. The next track starts out with some more weak drums and Common spits one of the worst lines I have heard from a legend ever "Its Kinda Like The Break up Between Jen and Vince Vaughn". I don't even want to get into this song after I hear that, but this track isn't that bad overall. If you thought you heard the worst line on the album on the last track you were wrong. Southside is filled with lines 5x worse, the beat is banging though. These days thats enough to keep it from the skip button. The Game, is the next track up. Its a great single and it reminds me of The Corner, unfortunately its Common's apex of rawness on Finding Forever.
One thing I would ask of the Common of the 2000's is to add back that raw freestyle element that has been missing since Resurrection. That alone would bump this album up a boombox in my mind. Most of us at this point have realized this isn't going to be Common's best album, but hopefully you all like it for what it is, Anyway, lets get back into the break down. Black Maybe, is definitely one of Common's positives in the album, its a great song. So Far To Go brings us yet another love related song on the album. Its also a track we have already heard a year ago, with new lyrics. I like this one alittle better than the one we heard on The Shining though. Break My Heart, the next love song on the album, has the worst verse I heard out of Common. He struggles to rhyme real words with real words and ends up mentioning Nsync, The beat is dope though. Next is Misunderstood and this is the song that gets me amped to hear more of the album, but its the second to last song. The beat was done by Devo Springsteen. before this I had never paid attention to him, but I really need to hear a beat tape of his or something. This is the best beat I have heard this year. I love how he uses the Nina Simone sample. There are parts where the sample's instruments sneak into the song and thats what makes this beat so raw and just plain classic. Common keeps up his end of the deal on this song as well. Which makes it easily my favorite song on the album. Forever Begins is also a great song and a perfect way to end the album, I just wish that Common would of did another verse on it, because it seems like he rushed to get to the infamous Pops Rap.
This album isn't one of Common's memorable albums to say the least, but its still one of the better albums to be released in 2007. The production and arrangement is superior to most Hip-Hop albums I have ever heard as well. I think the main element Common has lost in his long career is the rawness. Thats not really a bad thing though, we can't expect Common to do Resurrection II when he hasn't done that type of music for over 10 years. Despite what this review might hint, I actually enjoyed this album. Common has definitely put his lyrics on cruise control, but to any of the new fans that only know Common for Be this album is more than enough to peak your interest.
