COMMON Delivers
A BEAUTIFUL Revolution Part 2
This past Friday, Common released the album A Beautiful Revolution Part 2, a follow-up to last year’s A Beautiful Revolution. That album was meant to accompany the protests against police brutality after the death of George Floyd. Content-wise, this album and Part 2 both sound like 90s hip-hop albums with their focus on social justice. Sound-wise, the albums act as throwbacks to the 90s hip-hop genre of boom-bap, a genre that Common was a pioneer of.
A Beautiful Revolution Part 2 looks to continue what the first part did and that is to inspire in the midst of troubling times. Speaking to Rolling Stone, Common said, “A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2 was created with hope and inspiration in mind. The spirit of the album was meant to emulate what a greater day would sound and feel like.” After listening to the album, I think that he accomplished his goal.
As mentioned earlier, this isn’t your typical modern hip-hop album. There’s no autotune, 808s, or braggadocious lyrics. The lyrics themselves are quite the opposite as here they are inspirational and uplifting. Take the song Set It Free for example. The song is purely about self-confidence and self-acceptance. The chorus is sung by LA-based singer PJ and contains the following lyrics:
“You got it, yes, indeed
Kept under lock and key
Why don’t you set it free”
The “it” in this case refers to a person’s identity and the song is encouraging them to open up and let it out for everyone to see. The album is filled with songs like this whose lyrics act as words of encouragement. If you were to remove all the lyrics from the album this would sound just like a jazz album. Every song is backed by drums and guitars. This helps set the album apart from other hip-hop albums.
It will be interesting to see what direction Common takes next with his music. Will it continue with this jazz-like sound or will it evolve? Only time will tell.
