Common breaks new ground with "Circus"
by Alan Sculley
Like any popular genre of music, today"s hip-hop has its share of artists who try to craft tracks to fit the mold of either one of their past hits or a sound that has recently gotten hot. Common (with the help of his producers, Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson of The Roots, and the Neptunes) took almost an opposite approach when he made his recently released CD, Electric Circus. "I wanted people to be like "Is this album hip-hop? What is it?"" Common said in an interview last week. "It"s music, and I wanted it to touch different races. I wanted it to touch different parts of the world, different age groups, people who didn"t listen to hip-hop. I wanted it to be around [and] 50, 40 years from now have people say, "Man, that album, that was a classic album." That"s what I want people to say. "So with the music that we do we definitely want to push the boundaries because we know in hip-hop there are no limitations," said Common, whose real name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr. "The only limitations are the limitations that we put on ourselves." It"s too soon to know if Electric Circus will become a hip-hop classic. But Common and his many collaborators have created a CD that challenges the sounds of many of today"s popular artists. For one thing, where many hip-hop CDs seem like attempts to create a collection of singles, Electric Circus feels more like a group of tracks meant to function within the context of an entire album. The CD frequently segues from song to song, and Electric Circus as a whole has a cohesive flow from start to finish. This was a specific goal Common said he had for the CD. "We wanted to create a continuous story, a film, you know, a movie in itself. We definitely wanted it to have this picture and this continuity," Common said, speaking in visual terms. "And one thing that I was striving for was to make it that one presentation, but also have different colors, different sounds and different directions of songs." As Common suggests, Electric Circus may feel cohesive, but it"s also plenty diverse. In particular, the CD reflects Common"s recent interest in rock music that has found him drawn to the music of artists such as Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Pink Floyd and Billy Joel. As such, the song "Electric Wire Hustler Flower" (which features Sonny Sandoval from P.O.D. on vocals) weaves a decidedly psychedelic Hendrix-ian guitar line into its hip-hop structure, while "I Got A Right Ta" (one of two tracks produced by the Neptunes) bounces with funk, pop and soul. On "New Wave," Common collaborates with Stereolab singer Laetitia Sadier to concoct a surprisingly effective blend of hip-hop and techno-pop. But Common also displays a more straight-forward hip-hop sound on tracks like "The Hustle" and "Aquarius," while the soulful ballad (and recent single) "Come Close" features a guest vocal from Mary J. Blige. The innovative direction Common has taken in his music isn"t new, although Electric Circus suggests he is getting more daring with each album. A native of Chicago, he debuted in 1992 under the name Common Sense - he dropped the "Sense" as a result of a lawsuit from the group Common Sense - with the CD Can I Borrow a Dollar? Just 20 at the time, the CD found Common creating a fairly conventional sound. But by his third CD, 1997"s One Day It"ll All Make Sense, he was showing obvious signs of creating individual music. That promise began to blossom on the next CD, the 2000 release Like Water For Chocolate, which yielded his biggest hit to date in the song "The Light," and saw Common maturing as a lyricist. The boasting and macho posturing - not to mention tales of thuggery and partying - that typify many male rappers were replaced by songs that reflected Common"s spirituality and role as a single father of a young daughter. Electric Circus continues to show the sensitive side of Common. "Between Me, You & Liberation" is perhaps the most obvious example, as he preaches tolerance toward homosexuals. The romantic side of Common (who is currently involved with soul star Erykah Badu) is also strongly evident in tracks like "Come Closer" and "Star 69 (P.S. With Love)." More than anything, Common said recent CDs such as Like Water For Chocolate and Electric Circus reflect a newfound sense of confidence and the freedom he feels to follow wherever his musical inspirations take him. "When I was making the [early] albums I didn"t feel restrained or constrained," he said. "But when I look back at the situations, I do feel a little bit like I was trying to prove something to people. At the same time I wasn"t exposed to a lot of different things at the time when I was making certain albums. So those albums reflected where I was at at those times in my life." Compared to the hip-hop scene that existed a decade ago, when artists like Brand Nubian, NWA and Public Enemy were flourishing, Common thinks hip-hop has lost some of its daring edge. "It was more creative and more about innovation [then]," he said. "It was more pure. But hip-hop made some steps forward from there, too. Like some of the music, the sounds have increased. Now they"re using new and different things with it, and it"s still a progression Ö More people are into it, which is like making it a bigger voice. Now we"ve just got to figure out the right things to say."
Common, along with guests Gang Starr and Talib Kweli, will play at the Vogue on Tuesday, March 4. For ticket information, call 239-5151 or visit cc.com.
