This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
We gotta believe the future, we gotta believe the past
We gotta believe in more, didn’t know that we had it
We gotta believe each other, we gotta open up our minds
‘Cause music is for life, for life
-Marsha Ambrosious from Music For Life onHi-Teknology 2: The Chip by Hi-Tek
a track by track first hand account of the making of Common’s classic sophmore album
The Video Premiere of Common’s Raw
The Dreamer, The Believer is unanimously regarded as one of the best hip hop albums of the year. The premiere of his most recent video on Complex.com is a dazzling display of Common’s lyrical wit, masterful timing, and artful storytelling abilities. Any story where I get to crack the bottle over someone’s head and get away clean with the lady is a good ass story to me! Not to mention that to produce this video, Com’s budget on breath mints certainly exceeded his budget on Crown Royal Black, making him a complete BOSS on all accounts! Enjoy!
Common - Celebrate
If you have not copped this album yet you need to stop watching “Sht Girls Say”, and go get it! The holidays are here y’all! I am grateful for my family, friends, and loved ones. To everyone near or distant, familiar or estranged, I am just glad to have been able to cross paths with you. And, I hope that we can all grow strong and meet again in the future.
Take the time to celebrate with the ones you love ‘cause life is too short not to!
Common - Blue Sky
This official video has been out for a couple days now, and I can’t get enough of it. This song is just so inspiring for so many of us at a crossroads in our lives. His most recent autobiographical One Day It’ll All Make Sense gives a real candid insight on where Common came from, and where he’s going.
Gaining one’s definition demands that we learn from others’ experiences as well as our own. It means seeing yourself as part of a community—of family, of friends, and even of history.
Whatever it is that you love to do, do that shit like you were born to do it! Be part of this world by making your own mark. Define yourself, not letting what other’s have done inhibit you. If you or other’s have fell short in the past, learn from it, and continue to grow. It’s just that simple.
As far as I’ve strayed, I can never stay away
man, i LOVE hip hop
Behind the scenes of “Ghetto Dreams”
It all started with a dream, I wanted to be Run DMC
The Lord put the blessin’ upon the MC!
Common - Blue Sky from the upcoming album The Dreamer/The Believer
Tribute to the Classics:
Common - The 6th Sense from Like Water for Chocolate (2000)
produced by DJ Premier
So, as I have continued to dig through more of Common’s catalogue, I came across this gem. I find it interesting to listen to older songs and try to remember how different or indifferent things were at the time they were made. Last time I already touched base on how I have always appreciated Common’s ability to provoke thought and feeling through his music. This track is already 10 years old! It’s especially intriguing to me how relevant this song’s lyrics are despite its age. The intro “The revolution will not be televised” is in reference to Gil-Scot Heron’s song “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised”. Like Water for Chocolate was an incredible album (The Light is on it as well) and I’m a sucker for lyrics so here they are if you care for them too.
The perseverance of a rebel, I drop heavier levels
It’s unseen or heard, a king with words
Can’t knock the hustle, but I’ve seen street dreams deferred
Dark spots in my mind where the scene occurredSome say I’m too deep, I’m in too deep to sleep
Through me, Muhammad will forever speak
Greet brothers with handshakes on ghetto landscapes
Where a man is determined by how much a man makeCop cognacs and spit old raps with young cats
With cigarettes in they ear, niggerish they appear
Under the Fubu is a guru that’s untapped
Want to be in the rat race but ain’t ran one lapRan so far from the streets that you can’t come back
You trippin’ with nowhere to unpack, forgot that…
Chorus: (DJ Premier scratching samples from “Memories Are Here to Stay” by The Intruders, and “Allustrious” by Mobb Deep)
In front of two-inch glass and Arabs I order fries
Insipration when i write; I see my daughter’s eyes
I’m the truth, across the table from corporate lies
Immortalized by the realness I bring to itIf Revolution had a movie, I’d be theme music
My music you either: fight, fuck or dream to it
My life is one big rhyme, I try to scheme through it
Through my shell, never knew what the divine would bring through itI’d be lyin’ if I said I didn’t want millions
More than money saved, I wanna save children
Dealing with alcoholism and afrocentricity
A complex man drawn off of simplicityReality is frskin’ me
This industry will make you lose intensity
The Common Sense in me remembers the basement
I’m Morpheus in this hip-hop Matrix, exposing fake shitChorus
Somedays I take the L to gel with the real world
Got on at 87th, stopped by this little girl
She recited raps, I forgot where they was from
In em, she was sayin’ how she makes brothers cumI start thinking, how many souls hip-hop has affected
How many dead folks this art resurrected
How many nations this culture connected
Who am I to judge one’s perspective?Though some of that shit that y’all pop to it, I ain’t relating
If I don’t like it, I don’t like it, that don’t mean that I’m hating
I just want to innovate, and stimulate minds
Travel the world, and penetrate the timesEscape through rhythms in search of peace and wisdom
Raps and smoke signals let the streets know I’m with em
For now, I appreciate the moment in time
Ball players and actors be knowin’ my rhymes, it’s like…
and you knowww, yes you knowww
