Oasis in a Land of Sandy Gibberish
Hip-hop head Khutso Malele shares his experiences with underground rapper Common's much mature album.

One has to salute the man Common for his artistry, his consistency, and his fresh punch lines. Finding Forever is his latest offering to the hip hop community and it is surely fresh to death.

One good factor about Common is that he does not feature a lot of emcees on his albums, which makes it easy for one to critique his album based on his skills. His intro sounds like one is about to listen to a jazz album, which makes sense because Common has had that jazz element to his music from way back. With lines like ‘can’t leave rap alone, the streets need me/ hunger in their eyes is what seems to feed me’, on the track the people, Common retains that level of conscious rap that lacks in today’s market.

He talks about the pressures of life (what Zubz refers to as high black pressure) in driving me wild featuring Lilly Allen. The beats productions have an elderly mature feel to them and Common puts his raps on them flawlessly. In the track misunderstood, Common explains how the black race has been wrongly perceived due to their state of affairs around them.

Common is one of the few emcees who never wavered in his route as a recording hip hop artist. Kanye West gives the track Southside a twist with a catchy chorus. It would be unfair to give a list of tracks to look out for because all tracks are worth listening to. I surely put my money on this common album and I’d vouch for anybody else to do the same.