Album cover for The Dreamer / The Believer. Photo / Supplied
Album cover for The Dreamer / The Believer. Photo / Supplied
If anyone needed to get their swagger back, it was Common.
The Chicago-based rapper had cult cred to burn thanks to a 15-year career of incisive, politically minded old school rhymes that included mainstream hits like The Corner and Testify.
But all that evaporated with his 2008 album Universal MindControl, an ill-advised attempt at a Black Eyed Peas-style pop crossover.
So it's pleasing to find Common hitting harder than ever on his ninth album.
"My name's synonymous with prominence, I'm to hip-hop what Obama is to politics," he spits on comeback single Sweet, a blustering and boastful track that sets the scene for a mostly masterful return to form.
He hooks up with his mate Nas on Ghetto Dreams and the pair create quite the racket over producer No ID's sparse piano and horn-laced beats on another album standout.
Elsewhere, with its atmospheric and dreamy Electric Light Orchestra-sampling beats, Blue Sky could be something from the last Kanye West album, and Common proves his versatility on the summery and soulful on Lovin' I Lost.
Best of all is Raw (How You Like It), thanks to its swirling, reggae-tinged beats and story-telling rhymes about a particularly nasty love triangle.
A couple of cheesy late album R&B tinges aside, The Dreamer/The Believer finds Common riding the form of his life.
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