Finding Forever

Question: Where has real Hip-Hop gone? Answer: In Common's hands, where it's always been.

When Nas said that Hip-Hop was dead, he couldn't have been talking about Common. The 35-year old rapper -? whose birth name is Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. -? released his seventh studio album, entitled "Finding Forever." Incredibly soaked with beats by Kanye West, this album is bound to go in Hip-Hop history.

Most of the album -? like most of his works ?- has a jazzy neo-soul sound incorporated with old school samples. "The Intro" is lyric-less, and the music is arranged by Derrick Hodge for Son of Knowledge Music. The keyboards, drums, electric bass and harp sets a beautiful and majestic tone for the music ahead. Finding Forever has two sides to it; the rock star side and the jazzy side that Common is well-known for. "Start the Show," "Southside" and "The Game" are all on the rock star side. The guitar in "Southside," produced by West, is sampled from the Don Covay song "If There's a Will There's a Way." West amplifies the already-rough guitar chords with more bass and anything else to make a stereo vibrate.

As for the mellow side of the album, Common brings in a plethora of R&B singers and old samples. The song (second single off the album) "The People" -? in which he's discussing normal people in everyday life -? is sampled from "We Almost Lost Detroit" by Gil Scott Heron. "With lovers under dope/ experiment to discover hopes/ scuffle for notes/ the rougher I wrote, times were harder, went from rocky starter to a voice of a martyr," he raps. This wasn't the first time Common rapped over a Heron sample. For Kanye West's album "Late Registration" (2005), he rapped over a sped up version of "Home is Where the Hatred Is." Black Eyed Peas vet will.i.am added some of his flavor to the album on the fourth single, "I Want You." Will.i.am sings for the hook, "Once the love was strong/ now it's gone, long gone/