COMMON - THE DREAMER THE BELIEVER

COMMON

THE DREAMER / THE BELIEVER

2011

1. The Dreamer ft. Maya Angelou

First track of the album and already Common

proves his worth and ability to turn tracks into

something more. The beat isn't all that but 

Common's verses and flow really do lift this.

The hook isn't bad either. Not truly feeling the 

outro with Maya, i tend to skip her. 4.5/5

2. Ghetto Dreams ft. Nas

The end of The Believer does transition smoothly

into this sick collabo track with good 'ol Nasty Nas.

They both come correct and it's refreshing to

have these two together. As for the track itself, as

dope as it is, it could've been more since the

beat is wearing it down for me. 4.5/5

3. Blue Sky

Now this is sick and Common at his best. Who else

can make your head bump with just his verses 

when the beat doesn't even have a single snare!

(prolly a lot could do this of course, but i'm talking

about Common). First time i heard it i was waiting

for something to drop but the fact it didn't made it

even better. Crazy verses and a sick hook. 5/5

4. Sweet

First single and video and man does this deliver.

This made me more eager to get the album. 

Awesome beat and sick lyrics and delivery. 

A ram Common is what we need. 5/5

5. Gold

Musically this beat is bananas. It lifts the fairly 

simple drums to something much higher. 

Add a great hook and again Common coming 

through and it truly is gold. King Midas. 5/5

6. Lovin I Lost

Fuckin hell...you can't go wrong with this sample

but to make it this fantastic and have Common

flowin over it like he does is...pfeew 5/5 

7. Raw (How You Like It)

This sounds like an ol skool Busta track but not

one i'm feelin as much. Not a fan of the melodies

and Common sounds like back in the day when

i didn't like him. I can still appreciate though. 3.5/5

8. Cloth

Smooth laid-back track. Nice lyrics and a soft hook

that's not really inviting but still a really nice cut. 4/5

9. Celebrate

His latest video and it is what it is. A little too happy

for me perhaps but can't front. Its great. 4.5/5

10. Windows

Wouldn't call this up my alley, but for some reason

i'm kinda hooked. The combination of the drums,

Common's lyrics and the vibey hook? 

And the musical outro to this is sick. I loves. 5/5

11. The Believer ft. John Legend

Seriously not a fan of John Legend's hook here nor

the poppy beat. Sounds like an uptempo Eurovision

song with a rap over it. But yet, the song is sick. 4/5

12. Pops Belief

Nice little outro, but don't want to here this 

over and over as i'm bumping this album. 

Real quality Hip-Hop is still here. This year brought

a lot of such releases with J. Cole, Black And Brown, 

Phonte, 9th Wonder, etc, and last but not least 

Cappadonna & The Roots (who get my vote). 

This album comes close to them but I feel the lasting

appeal is not quite the same. Still, that's personal

and doesn't matter here. Point is, this is classic

material once again from the one and only. 

Not sure yet where this rates amongst his 

other albums but Common never dissapoints.

Overall Score: 9.3/10