Common - Like Water For Chocolate

[DJMethods]

How the fuck hasn't this gotten a review yet?



1. Time Travelin' (A Tribute To Fela)
2. Heat
3. Cold Blooded
4. Dooinit
5. The Light
6. Funky For You
7. The Questions
8. Time Travelin' Reprise
9. 6th Sense
10. A Film Called (Pimp)
11. Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For the World)
12. Thelonius
13. Payback is a Grandmother
14. Ghetto Heaven Part Two
15. A Song For Assata
16. Pops Rap III... All My Children

Most/all tracks produced by Dilla, with some occasional help from ?uestlove, D'Angelo, James Poyser, Jay Dee, DJ Premier, Karim Riggins and the Roots.

Production is on point (Not traditional for a lot) with jazzy and soulful beats, as well as a Premo classic on "6th Sense".

Common is on point on pretty much every song, like usual, and has some very good stand out moments. Everyones heard "The Light", real way to do a love song and not "I love you bitch" type crap. Classic line, "I never call you my bitch or even my boo, theres so much more in a name and so much more in you".

6th Sense is probably my favourite track, but Dooinit is a real track that takes a big shot at mainstream commercialised cats, surprised no one attacked him for this haha.

A Film Called (Pimp) has MC Lyte and Common doing a pimp/prostitute story telling role, dope as fuck as usual.

Mos Def, Black Thought, Cee-Lo (Who's actually good), D'Angelo, Slum Village, some tight guest appearnces as well.

Definte 4.5/5 for me, would be Common's best ever album, but hard to beat Resurrection

[WuGambino]

Love it.

[oDoUoSoKo]

jay dee and j Dilla are one and the same.

[DJMethods]

jay dee and j Dilla are one and the same.

I know

Oh shit, I see what you mean. I just copied a list of producers cause I couldn't be fucked going through the booklet and getting them all out. That shits hard to read.

[rainbow]

fucking awesome.

one of the most interesting hip hop albums i own, really diverse sound and lyrical content.

"Cold Blooded" is probably my favourite track, but their all dope, i like the way its bring the album in though.

[Unseen]

Favourite tracks are "6th Sense", "A Song for Assata", "Payback is a Grandmother" and "The Light". There's are few I aint feelin like "Heat" but that's only because of the beat. Id give it a 8.5/10
Very diverse like the cat above said.

[HarlemDiplomat]

Classic and slept on.

[DR. NICK RIVIERA]

Common was always slept on. Its a shame. I really like this one, hope Finding Forever will be this good

[liquid_1_]

i love 6th sense.

[Deity Allah]

I haven't listened to this album in years. It's somewhere in my room, I just have to dig it up. But it was a very good album, though I think "Finding Forever" is a lil' bit better, but maybe I should let the novality of his new project wear off before I make that assesment. Anyways, my favorite joint of this album was "Nag Champa (Afrodisiac For the World)"

[Deity Allah]

Ok, I just found this CD and I retract my last statement. Finding Forever is not better than this, lol. Like Roy Jones said "Ya must have forgot!" with me being the nigga who forgot

[Dragondude_R]

10/10

Used to be my favorite Com album, but Ressurection grew on me. Now they switch spots a lot.

[NAKHI the SOLORIAN]

yea this is a superb LP his best to date on some real shit

[claaa7]

this is my favorite Common album he ever did and also one of the finest Jay Dee/Dilla produced albums (he produced on everything but four joints so yeah). the chemistry between Com' and The Soulquarian's (Jay Dee, Questlove, James Poyser and D'Angelo) production team is nothing short of incredible and creates pure art in my opinion, this is what a true masterpiece sound like.

the atmosphere of "Like Water For Chocolate" flows through the whole LP with it's laid-back, chilling and non-traditional jazz n soul vibes and it's the perfect backdrop for Common to rhyme over, wheter it's a filtered sample or some live instrumentation. i'd go as far as saying that Common was at his lyrical peak on here as well, the neo-soul sounds of The Soulquarian's and move to New York probably brought that out of him, his flow and wordplay is immaculate on every verse and he ALWAYS got something to say. So many quotable lines on tracks like "The 6th Sense", "Dooinit" and "Nag Champa" that it's ridicilous and the few guest apperances are well-thought out and spread across the tracks nicely - featuring only the finest underground MC's in Slum Village, Mos Def, MC Lyte and Jay Dee and great vocalists in D'Angelo, Cee-Lo and Vinija Monica.

i liked the album from the first time i heard it, but it was mostly the instant hits like "The Light", "The Sixth Sense", "Dooinit" and "Thelonious" that had my head nodding, but as time went on i find myself totally loving everything about this LP. tracks like the 6 minute opener "Time Travellin'" and the soulful "Ghetto Heaven Pt. 2" (the original one with D'Angelo, not the weaker remix with Macy Gray that for some stupid reason got replaced with in later pressings; i'm just glad i got the OG) really grew on me.

Jay Dee was so incredible behind the boards and this album is a true testament to his genius, if i was gonna put someone on to his work with just one LP this might very well be it. you can hear the mutual respect between him and Common as they brought out the best in eachother and it's a perfect balance between the experimental and abstract hip-hop music and the traditional boom-bap. their second collaboration, "Electric Circus", was a large step further into the experimental and weird but never comes close to the brilliance of this masterpiece. Might very well be top 10 albums of the last decade.


Top 5 songs: "The Light", "Thelonoius", "The 6th Sense", "Dooinit", "Nag Champa"


Production: 5/5
Lyrics: 4.5/5
Rating: 9.25/10

[CharlesJones]

Wack album. I like about 2-3 songs.