(AllHipHop News) If you ask Hip Hop fans about Common’s career album catalog, many of their answers would likely acknowledge the Chicago emcee has 2-3 classics under his belt. So it seems proper to ask Com which particular recent projects he holds up as some of the standouts from the culture.
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DJBooth did just that in an interview with Common. The creator of 2014’s Nobody’s Smiling picked works by a couple of fellow Chitown representatives, a leader of the new West Coast, a New York veteran, and a Grammy-winning R&B singer.
Common said:
I would say My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West. I think it had all the elements of hip-hop that you love. It had the dope rhyming, hardcore beats, but he did something that was really new and progressive. He had the perfect subject matter. Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.a.a.D. City. That album had a story to it. The songs were unique and fresh. His perspective was fresh. I liked Chance The Rapper’s mixtape Acid Rap. I liked that because anybody sampling Slum Village, you already know that there’s something special there. (Laughs) There was something real about it and true. I loved Nas’ Life is Good. That definitely let you know that some of the classic artists still know how to make music that’s relevant. And talking about subject matter, “Daughters,” was like, ‘Man!..
I think the fifth – I wouldn’t say it’s not a hip-hop album – but the fifth album that I think was under something you would say, ‘Man, you could do innovative music,’ was that Frank Ocean album, Channel Orange. I thought that his writing was real good. And for you to build an impact, be on the Grammys singing songs, and have an Andre 3000 on the album, it was dope, man. Those are the five albums that I feel like gave me hope in hip-hop and what Frank Ocean’s album did, gave me hope for other music as well.
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