Man, about five years ago I was so damn white. Not that my skin color actually deepened at some point in time, but I had a serious soul deficit. I thought Bach's "Tocatta and Fugue" had a thick bass line going on. Growing up in Oregon, not quite an ethnic mecca, my knowledge base of black culture was derived from reruns of Fat Albert ("You mean black people don't always say 'hey hey hey?'"). I couldn't have found my groove thing if you'd given me a map. One day, Richie from "Happy Days" walked up to me and said "Damn!" In short, if I'd been any whiter, I would have been clear.
And then I discovered Aphex Twin. Alright, that was later. What I did find was my father's record collection. I found Miles. I found Thelonius. I found Jimi. I found the Godfather of Soul himself. Changes commenced immediately. Suddenly, I knew what the scenario was. Stakes was high. I was rhymin' wit' Biz. I found myself asking, "What is this shaking phenomenon that is happening with my booty? I must say, this is almost as pleasurable as reading Dante!"
Of course, right around this point, it all went to hell in the rap world. Organics in hip-hop were replaced with electronic skitter and weak rhymes. Heart and soul were supplanted by speed freaks like Bone Thugs N' Harmony. Machismo and money superseded authenticity and love for music. "Entrepreneurs" like Master P began serving records like hamburgers, inundating the industry with clone rappers whose most impressive attributes were their ice and gold teeth. The outlook was bleak.
Common's Like Water for Chocolate occupies a pivotal position in the current Black Renaissance that has emerged to rescue hip-hop music from decaying into a soulless nightmare. On the heels of seminal releases from the Roots and Mos Def, Like Water for Chocolate engenders an ongoing sense of hope in those who pine for a new school of black intellectuals, making heads bop in the process. Common pays apt tribute to the forefathers of black music throughout his opus, infusing tracks with an invigorating hybrid of cool jazz, bebop, funk, and hip-hop.
Like Water for Chocolate is a musical gift from a man who clearly paid attention in "How to Rock Rhymes 101," bringing a guest list that would make any MC drool. The entire album is produced by the talented ?uestlove of the Roots, who verifies that he has more than enough musical acumen to go around. Fellow Roots Black Thought and Rahzel provide raw backing vocals on "Cold Blooded," a relentless rhythmic cacophony in which deep horns and concussive funk guitar rattle the brain harder than a Mack truck. "Heat" brings the spirit of battle raps back to the forefront, floating above an off-kilter drum loop by ?uestlove. On "The 6th Sense," Common gets iller than Syphilis over an addictive track supplied by Gang Starr's DJ Premier. Cee-Lo's awe-inspiring vocal arrangements on "A Song for Assata" make it the most beautiful hip-hop piece by a rapper to appear in years. The list is seemingly unending, also featuring D'Angelo, Mos Def, MC Lyte and the Ummah production crew.
Like the Roots' Things Fall Apart and Mos Def's Black on Both Sides, this record is certainly the product of much thought and work, but it's a labor of love. Right before our eyes, rappers like Common are laying the foundations for a closely-knit family of hip-hop zealots who eat, sleep and breathe positive, intelligent hip-hop-- a network of men and women who share a mutual respect and can address serious societal issues that plague us all (and wreck MCs) without coming off as pedantic or absurd. In 2000, this is just about as good as hip-hop gets.
