Common “Universal Mind Control” Review

It is often difficult to gain a balanced perspective on an album after reading a single summary of the music. Bias can tilt the review – as can personal taste, history and just about everything else that is unique to the person writing it. So in an effort to offer an expanded perspective on the music here are four reactions, four impressions, Four Takes on Common’s Universal Mind Control.

Common has definitely dropped some gems over the years, but ultimately, he’s a victory of marketing over substance, especially after the Electric Circus fiasco. He’s the Kanye-backed, major label-backed, movie making, “conscious” rapper du jour. Die hard Resurrection fans keep giving him passes on mediocre material, while rock critics, college professors and poseurs who don’t know anything about hip hop put him on a pedestal as some kind of great revolutionary poet. But after three-plus albums of corny punchlines, casual sexism, forced pop culture references, horrible sex raps and a whole lot of vague political platitudes, I’m about ready to forget “I Used to Love H.E.R.” Common. Universal Mind Control is more of the same, unfortunately. The bright spot is the production, courtesy of the Neptunes and the slept-on Mr. DJ. It’s glossy and computerized, but very fun; the album is also quite short, which helps it stay cohesive. But Common himself is just coasting here, occasionally even venturing into outright wackness. When the little girl on “Changes” says “change is Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Shakespeare, Assata Shakur, Barack Obama and you can’t forget Common,” that was pretty much the last straw. If you want socially conscious hip hop, go listen to The Coup or Blue Scholars or Big Quarters or Invincible or any of a million other great indie acts. Common may always be the face of “conscious rap,” but he’s also the genre’s biggest caricature; unfortunately, knit hats, Obama punchlines and pretentiousness are no substitutes for hunger, talent and purpose. [Kyle "Guante" Myhre]

I was hoping that Common would have more of an influence on bringing the records of his Chi-city cohort Kanye West a bit more down to earth, but it turns out that the reverse is happening, with the overproduced, self-indulgent and sexed-up Universal Mind Control aiming for the stratosphere but ultimately falling flat. Gone, for the most part, are the socially aware and introspective tracks that have set Common apart from the bling, cars, and women clichès that have plagued hip-hop, replaced with the glossy production of the Neptunes that struggles between trying to make this album sound futuristic and like it was from Sugar Hill Gang-70′s era Hip Hop. And the informed, conscious lyrics of Com have been swapped with X-rated rhymes like “Gucci rockin’, coochies poppin’” and “It’s slippery when it’s wet girl, I can read the signs. I knock and I knock, can I come inside?” It seems so out of place and forced that it’s just laughable. He could be forgiven if this was just on a track or two, but sex seems to permeate just about every song on the record, which just isn’t Common’s strength. “Make My Day” with Gnarls Barkley’s Cee-Lo is a good, upbeat track with a banging beat (helped by production from Outkast’s Mr. DJ), even with Common’s rather pedestrian (and again sexed-up) rhymes, but is followed up by one of the worst songs I’ve heard this year, the abominable “Sex 4 Suga,” that has no redeemable qualities whatsoever. “Gladiator” is a slammin’ track, but the tough, holier-than-thou ‘who’s next?’ stance of the rhymes ring hollow when you look at all the weak, watered down songs on the rest of the record. It also makes the mildly political, uplifting “Changes,” that references fellow Chicagoan President-elect Obama, seem silly and out of place. This is a wildly uneven record, featuring some of the worst rhymes of Common’s career. It seems like Com saw the Brass Ring that Kanye has grabbed (or at least thinks he’s got), and decided he wanted that level of success; he went for big, polished production that just adds to the erratic feel of the record, and traded in his socially conscious rhymes for pornographic lyrics that sound awkward, forced, and absurd. [Erik Thompson]

Oh Common, what have you done? Without trying to paint myself into a corner too much, I have to say I am disappointed with the “new”sound that Common has employed on Universal Mind Control. Common said in an interview that he felt like this type of music was “missing from his body or work.” Yeah, I know every rapper wants to add cheesy commercial crap to their otherwise sterling resume of inventive, thoughtful and consistent albums. The album is filled with stars, and they do a great job of helping this album fight its way towards the mediocre middle. The first three songs feature Pharrell, Kayne West and Cee-Lo Green. Each of the songs they contribute to sound like throw away versions of the songs that made them popular with Common rapping over them. The first solo song, “Sex 4 Suga” is the worst Common song I have ever heard and makes me wonder if this is the same guy who wrote his earlier classic albums. The second half of the album, with less clutter from guest artists, is a little better, but is still a downhill turn from his previous work. The beats, provided mostly by the Neptunes, are clunky and seem to add to the overall misguided feel of the LP. Leave the Neptunes’ beats and misogynistic lyrics to the Clipse, OK Common? Hopefully this collection of songs is just an aberration and the next Common album will be more like the Like Water for Chocolate/Be (my favorite era) Common. [Josh Keller]

This past summer Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino co-starred in the cop-drama, Righteous Kill. The idea of putting two icons together is a great one, but the one that’s already been done, and one that now screams “paycheck.” No matter how vital their key roles are in the history of cinema, somewhere along the way the actors in Taxi Driver and Scarface turned into the guys in Meet The Fockers and Ocean’s 13. But as time passes, people change, and far be it from me to suggest that these great actors (who I am imagining are financially secure these days) are making movies simply for the cash… but it kind of appears that way. Same thing here though, with Common’s Universal Mind Control – after one listen, I defy you to not think that this is a “paycheck” album. Last year, when “The Game” and “The People” were released as singles, Finding Forever seemed like a return to prominence. Turns out, they were essentially the only two tracks on the album that remotely evoked the passion and spirit of Common’s most notable work. But again, people change, and Common isn’t the same person (let alone the same MC); somewhere along the way, banging “The Light” and dating Erykah Badu turned into hip hopping for The Gap (it should be noted that he’s also appearing in unnecessary sequels, but that’s beside the point). With the new album, it sounds as though Common is attempting to utilize The Neptunes to find some sort of new-cool. “Sex 4 Suga” takes a basic N.E.R.D. club-march and injects lyrics that most artists wouldn’t have any part of – I might even call that song a lapse in common sense (zing). “Gladiator” is that rare occasion when The Neptunes’ beat hits – but Common drops some ridiculous lyrics throughout, killing the track, “had dreams of breakin’ Michael Vick out of jail, took the underground rail to the NFL.” Again, maybe in mocking DeNiro’s poor choice in roles, but I’m pretty sure that Common just hyped a dog-killing criminal. Last year Chamillionaire bit the beat from “The People” and dropped “Don’t Hurt Em Hammer” on his Mixtape Messiah 3 album. His verses revolved around how he was losing his taste in rap, and how he was losing his passion and creative drive. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Universal Mind Control, it’s got some tracks that sound good (“Announcement,” “Changes”), but it just fails to pop – there’s little evidence of any creative drive within its 10 songs. Again, it’s unfair to compare artists solely to their work of days-gone-by, because they’ll never be that person again… that being said, it’s not unfair to call them out when their releases have little substance and translate as dispassionate shells. [Chris DeLine]

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