Consumer Guide Album

Common: One Day It'll All Make Sense [Relativity, 1997]
With no notable penchant for ear candy or mass ass appeal, this Chicago rhymer carves out an unpretentious artistic space that couldn't have existed before hip hop--no singer-songwriter's everyday ruminations come such social content or physical form. Common raps about black life as most black people live it and black manhood as most young black men grow into it, and while his flow isn't primed for the dance floor, it's complex and full-bodied in a way few, you know, white artists could imitate, much less make up. Nor is that the only way he's complex--guy spends considerable time dancing in his head. B+