Happy 15th Birthday to Common’s fourth LP Like Water for Chocolate, originally released March 28, 2000.

Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr. – better known as Common – was introduced to tens of millions of people around the globe, for the very first time, with his impassioned speech following his and collaborator John Legend’s deserving Best Original Song triumph at last month’s Academy Awards. While Common is just now garnering broader household name recognition, and rightfully so, there are many of us who have been well acquainted with the man and his music for just shy of a quarter-century.


Since its inception back in 1992, Common’s recording career has been an intriguing one to observe. Refreshingly chameleonic in many respects, the Chicago-bred emcee has refined and reinvented his sound with each of his ten albums to date, none of which have succumbed to the monotonous carbon copy syndrome that often plagues other less adventurous artists. Indeed, he has continually placed a relentlessly high premium on innovation and experimentation, while keeping his artistic integrity firmly intact. Common is progression personified, and he has irrefutably fulfilled his self-proclaimed prophecy of becoming a hip-hop pioneer.

If memory serves, I first heard Common – known at the time by his original moniker, Common Sense – on Yo! MTV Raps in ‘92, via the video for his first-ever single “Take It EZ.” Impressed with his spirited rhymes, commanding delivery, and unique voice, I picked up his debut long player Can I Borrow a Dollar? a short time later, enjoyed it for sure, and was eager to hear more from him.


Two years later, his sophomore album Resurrection dropped and my 17-year old mind was officially blown.Resurrection quickly became one of my all-time favorite LPs, hip-hop or otherwise. In fact, when I began penning album reviews for my high school’s student newspaper in the fall of my senior year, Resurrection was the first album I selected to review. Happily forsaking any attempt at critical objectivity, my effusive, gushing love for the record jumped off the page. While the iconic ode to hip-hop affection and first single “I Used to Love H.E.R.” is the standout track for me, “Communism,” “Thisisme,” and the title track are the next most obvious song highlights. Containing nary a filler song to be heard, Resurrection is a bona fide hip-hop classic. The album is an important one in the annals of rap music, as it arguably placed Chicago on the hip-hop map that had previously been monopolized by New York and Los Angeles. And beyond its geographic implications, Resurrection earned its creator a broader audience that began to regard him as a legitimate artistic force, possessed of incredible promise and potential for longevity in the game.


A more prolonged than anticipated period of three years elapsed between Resurrection and the release of his third album, largely due to Common becoming a new father in the interim. Finally released in the fall of 1997, the stunning One Day It’ll All Make Sense was a noticeably more mature, poignant, and polished LP than its two predecessors. With his producer-in-arms No I.D. manning the soundboard for the third consecutive album, Common was joined by a handful of esteemed colleagues, offering testament to the fact that his reputation had become well-fortified throughout the hip-hop community. Notable contributors included Lauryn Hill (“Retrospect for Life”), De La Soul (“Gettin’ Down At The Amphitheater”), Q-Tip (“Stolen Moments Pt III”), Black Thought (“Stolen Moments Pt. II”), Erykah Badu (“All Night Long”), and Cee-Lo Green (“G.O.D.”), among others.


Critically applauded at the time of its release, One Day It’ll All Make Sense contains some of Common’s best and most balanced work to date. Somewhat perplexingly, I recall bearing witness to some grumblings in more outspoken circles – and among some of my fellow music heads – that the album marked a bit of a creative regression when compared to Resurrection. Yeah, I didn’t hear it, but go figure. Perhaps the expectations and standards of some were unfairly inflated, considering the momentum that had been brewing around Common since Resurrection, but for me – and for many others – his third offering is a phenomenal album.


Three solid albums under his belt, and hoping to circumvent the creative and spiritual complacency that can often accompany newfound acclaim, Common uprooted himself in more ways than one. In 1999, he relocated from his native stomping grounds of Chicago to the fertile soils of New York City. In a recent interview for Complex Magazine’s “Magnum Opus” series, Common reflects that “Comin’ to New York was like an opening for a new chapter and new creativity. Being exposed to new things.” This notion of embracing the dynamism of life in New York City as a way to revive and nourish the soul certainly resonates with me, personally, as I too moved there one year later in 2000, after feeling stagnated and uninspired in Los Angeles. As a matter of fact, I recall seeing Common – as well as his former paramour, Badu – strolling around my adopted neighborhood of Fort Greene, Brooklyn from time to time, during my first few years living there.


In addition to moving east, Common moved record labels, from the indie Relativity Records, which had commissioned his first three LPs, to MCA Records, one of the largest record companies and home to The Roots,GZA, and Mary J. Blige, at the time. In a new city, with a major label now backing him, Common was able to focus his energy more than ever before toward exercising his artistic freedoms and exploring new paths for his music.

http://www.soulhead.com/2015/03/28/longplaylove-common-like-water-for-chocolate-celebrating-15-years-by-justin-chadwick

If so, you did an excellent job. The piece managed to capture the general sense of Common's career up to that point, described the shift in outlook that Common had towards life which had an impact on the record, and the mood and themes of the record.

I really liked the paragraph describing Common's reasons for choosing the title and the symbolism behind that title - Common using the record as a means to express all of his self.

I put this album on the other day, and thought of living on my own and talking to friends about the album during the time it was released.

I miss that time period, the Soulquarian era. Lots of great musicians starting to find their way and make great music.

Thanks again for the article.