My friends were telling me about Common for years now, but for some reason I never bothered to actually listen until the other week when I was in the sales and picked up this little gem...

However, I will admit I played the role of a narcoleptic and also slept on Common. That's why it's took me so long to listen to Like Water For Chocolate which is regarded as one of his best releases. With a combination of the "hip-hop Julius Erving" ?uestlove and the rest of the Soulquarians producing this album and Common's tight, powerful lyricism, this CD still has enough heat and soul to send a heatwave through Hell while making Lucifer do a two-step. A perfect example of this would be the Premo-produced first single "The Sixth Sense" where a plethora of quotable lines is emitted over a head-nodding scaled-piano/drum-loop soundscape that is sprinkled nicely with DJ cuts. Another could be the smooth groove-heavy "Thelonius" where Common spits hot lyrics such as "I 'Trick Daddy' emcees and I don't know 'Nann N*gga'...you better goin' to God like Mase did" over a melodious production by Jay Dee, even though the Slum Village appearance makes this song sound almost mediocre. Still "Thelonius" is only the night that quiets the fiery passion of "Dooinit" where Common claims to "X' cats like a Muslim" and rails against the softness of commercial rap music.

The female. The one without life is not complete. James Brown once said "it's a man's world, but it would be nothing without a woman hardly there" or words to that effect. It is not surprising that Common's best songs on this album have to do or are dedicated to women. Whether getting revenge on dudes who "even got Jordan for his ice" and jacked his grandmother on the storytelling mini-epic "Payback is a Grandmother" or dedicating the intro on this album to a deceased soul singer, it's obvious that Common has only love for the female form. On the beautiful-sounding (word to Jay Dee once again) second single from this album "The Light", it's amazing how much respect he has for his girl. Not just lustin' like most of us confuse for love, but realizing that "it don't take a whole day to recognize sunshine". He already gets props from me for saying that he'll "never call you my b*tch or even my boo." If more of us thought like that, the world would be a better place. If not, at least, our females would be more respected.

Like Water For Chocolate. Arguably, one of Common's best albums. Even though some people slept on the sense that he spitted on this CD, it is still a remarkable achievement. I'm just amazed that I overlooked an album of this calibre. Guess you could say I took an overlong nap and finally woke up. Nevertheless, Common has created a near-classic with this album and one can only hope that his new release can even come close to the greatness of this one. If not, we'll always have this one moment to show that Chicago hip-hop doesn't end, begin, or revolve around the aforementioned Kanye West.