long live giles li

10-24-07

Sorry Common, You Suck

image ganked from concreteloop.com – obviously

I don’t want to be labeled a Lonnie-hater, because at his best, he’s one of my favorite emcees EVAR. More importantly, his artistic growth has been very apparent, something most solo rappers can’t claim. (After finding a certain level of success, a lot of emcees keep trying to replicate it instead of continuing to grow artistically.) It’s a straight line from Can I Borrow a Dollar? straight through to Be. I don’t mean to say the quality or listenability necessarily grew with each new album, but that you could see him adding new musical explorations and questions (huh, that’s what it’s all about) with each new release.

But that trend stopped with Finding Forever, which is straight wack. The first single, “The People,” was actually pretty bangin, until he called Kanye West “the new Primo,” and all the sudden, that song became kinda unlistenable. When I heard the album for the first time, I actually skipped over most tracks before they were finished, something I never do the first time I listen to an album. They were just so bland.

So what the hell do I know? Nothing really, but doesn’t something feel kind of awry in that picture up there? Word is it’s from his upcoming video for “I Want You.” Here in absolutely no logical order are the reasons the picture above represents everything wrong with Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr right now.

1. Alicia Keyes
Yeah I understand she’s dope, beautiful, talented, a great songwriter. (Please don’t talk to me about her poetry though.) She’s from New York City, she went to the high school that “Fame!” was based on, she pulls off wearing the most ill-conceived outfits by looking impossibly good, she is a big Prince fan. So what is my problem? Basically, she co-starred with Common in a terrible movie – Smokin’ Aces – which from what I can tell was produced and directed by a computer. How derivative can a movie be? It’s like the screenwriters just took 7 different run-of-the-mill crime short films and tried to figure out a way to make them one movie. Seeing Common and Alicia Keyes acting together again is no thrill. It’s not so much Alicia herself, but the memory of terrible filmmaking that haunts me.

2. Kanye West
I thought Will.I.Am produced this song? Why is Kanye in the video? My wife thinks Kanye intentionally encouraged Common to make a wack album so his own would look better when he dropped it. (”Yeah yeah yeah Rashid, just flip through this US Weekly to come up with metaphors. Trust me, I’m Kanye West!”) There may be something to that, because how could Common have gone from the musical scape of Electric Circus and Be to an album full of corny love raps? I know, in general when Kanye has a hand in something, it often turns out pretty pleasurable on the ear for the effort, but once he starts putting his voice on the hook, it gets worse, and when he kicks a guest verse, it’s time to pull the cord. I can only wish I could listen to Be with all of Kanye’s voice edited out. He’s like the rap Jar Jar Binks. (And why does Kanye’s voice shake so hard on the hook on “Southside,” was he jogging? And after Common’s hilarious clever and funny punchlines like the James Baldwin line or the “back of a motorcycle,” why does Kanye follow up with shit like “ArmorAll flow cuz it never get rusty” and the Grey Poupon line? That’s a perfect example of another otherwise fun song ruined by Mr. West.)

3. Serena Williams (that’s her on the far right)
Serena dated Brett Ratner. That’s just, I mean, come on.

4. His wardrobe
I’m not narrow-minded son. I don’t have any reason to believe a rapper shouldn’t wear a suit. I think cats should dress sharp if they want. Wearing a suit is fine by me, in fact, I encourage it if it looks fresh. (What’s up with his tiny lapels though?) But the real issue to me is that this video is obviously such a production. It’s got famous guests, bright lights, slick sets, basically giving the “people” what they want, except the “people” are casting agents and advertising executives. If this isn’t a demo reel for future movie roles, then it ain’t nothing. He even said it in one of those wack love songs on the new album, “I got my SAG card, baby, I’m an actor.” What, too good for rapping?

As good as Common has been in the past, it looks like he’s halfway over the shark right now. I know a lot of people have trouble admitting this to themselves, but it’s hard to think of another explanation.