Finding Forever :A Soulful Rehab (Album Of The Week)

Like a kid on Christmas day, the arrival of Commons "Finding Forever" at my desk filled me with glee that only materialism could produce. I expected nothing short of delight, and delight is what I received. The melodic jazz intro left me salivating at the mouth and the transition to the Kanye West produced "Start The Show" left me in a diabetic coma. The radio friendly "The People" feat. Dwele, awoke me from this slumber. Following the same format as his last piece of art, Common takes the listener through a 12 step dope fiend's anonymous program, where the dope are ill beat breaks and the crack is sampled goodness. Other notable tracks are the funk lounge like Will-I-Am featured and produced "I Want You", the ode to a Black man's struggle "Black Maybe" feat. Bilal, and the very clever "Break my Heart", on which he claims his new found acting credits with:

"She said you look like you Rap, Where's your Blingay?/And your clothes is tight, but you don't seem gay/I said naw, That's dude from N'syncay/She wasn't Married, kept her ring on her pinky / She said you know I don't be datin' Rappers/ I said I got my S.A.G card, Baby I'm an Actor".

Striking gold once again with the late great J. Dilla, Common takes us on a classic love journey along with D'Angelo on the beautifully composed "So Far To Go", which you might recognize from J. Dilla's final Album "The Shining". As was evident on his last album, Common leaves the listener with an extravagant outro perfectly titled "Forever Begins", on which his Father lends some words of wisdom.


Finding Forever is an experience like no other, and is a great add to his ever growing catalog. The continued success of Common's music is no surprise. In the words of Phonte of Little Brother, "Dope Beats+ Dope Rhymes= Dope Music".

Peace. Love.H-life

J. Poakwa


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Track Listing
1. Intro
2. Start the Show Feat. Kanye West
3. The People Feat. Dwele
4. Drivin' Me Wild Feat. Lily Allen
5. I Want You Feat. Will-I-Am
6. Southside Feat. Kanye West
7. The Game Feat. DJ Premier
8. Black Maybe Feat. Bilal
9. So Far to Go Feat. D'Angelo
10. Break My Heart
11. Misunderstood
12. Forever Begins