First of all, my point in putting that in there was simply to say it doesn't matter whether I'm crazy about the song, I support Common and the others. I did not mean to spark any debate about the merits of the song.

Having said that, I must stand by what I said. I wasn't speaking about the music or the performances, but strictly about the subject matter of the song. Common does a lot of good things lyrically, evoking some genuinely creative imagery. But the "finding beauty in the hood" song has been a staple in rap music for several years now, and soul music for a lot longer than that. Each artist tries to do a different spin on it, tell it from their angle. But they all fall into the same genre.

Now, I don't have a whole list of song titles to post here to back me up, and you can call me on that. But I believe these are the types of songs that Tupac made his stock in trade towards the end of his career. In fact, its de riguer for west coast gangsta rappers to add, amongst all the violent bravado, one song about how they love the ghetto and as bad as it is there's still goodness there. And east coast artists have done their share of them as well.

More specifically in Common's song, he has a verse about how life in the music game is hard, he has the "strong woman" verse, he talks about "blunted eyes of youth search for a God" and how he wants folks to say "his life, it meant more". He may twist it with better metaphors and make it sound better than most, but are you really going to tell me you've never heard anyone talk about similar things in their songs?

Remember, this is just my opinion, but I've heard enough ghetto imagery songs. I've heard plenty of songs about finding God within the pain and hardship of life in the underclass. Even if this song is better than all the others, I have to ask, did we need another? (see Reign's thread in The Lesson.) I'd say, at least, I didn't. Maybe you did. Clearly, Common needed one. So that's cool. I'm looking for more.

Musically, the song is cool. Not outstanding or jaw dropping, but I like it. As it stands now, it does things you're not used to hearing in hip hop music, which is great. It's also what we've come to expect from all the artists who worked on it. So I'm actually anxious to hear where they take it.

Please note also, I never said anything about Macy Gray. I actually like her. Or at least, I don't mind her.

RED
(giving you true slices of ghetto life since 1991)