Somehow, it makes sense that Common's found himself following the Mos Def/Ice Cube/LL Cool J/Fat Boys tradition of rappers-turned-actors: Despite a couple of bumps in the road where he overextended his reach (Electric Circus) or fell into a formulaic rut (Finding Forever), he's done a good job finding new roles for himself. It's easy to take for granted, but the way Common evolved through the course of his first three albums-- each one delivered during a pivotal transition phase for hip-hop-- shows a dedication to craft that you only really get from MCs who never stop thinking they have something to prove.
Thisisme Then: The Best of Common covers the MC's three-record stint on Relativity, before his Soulquarians partnership took his stylistic restlessness into a different phase. It's a primer on his early years, containing every major single released from 1992's hyperactive debut "Take It EZ" through 1997's Badu/Roots-tinged "All Night Long", plus a handful of solid album tracks and one song, "High Expectations", that previously appeared on the soundtrack to Soul in the Hole. With 15 tracks to work with over those five years, there's plenty of space for a solid representation of who Common was in the early-mid 1990s, with his Cube dis cut "The Bitch in Yoo" the only noticeable omission.
But just because it's comparatively exhaustive doesn't mean it's cohesive. That's because the first third of the CD is dedicated to tracks from Common's first record, Can I Borrow a Dollar?, which has long been overlooked in the wake of his successive work from Resurrection onwards-- and understandably so, since his lighthearted, borderline-comedic delivery, booze-and-bitches subject matter and kitschy pop culture references are another universe from the Common fans have grown to appreciate. Funny thing is, he's pretty damn good at that whole catchy Das EFX/Naughty By Nature stream-of-consciousness style that was sweeping pre-Wu East Coast rap at the time: As flat-out goofy as his lyrics are on "Take It EZ" ("I'm a Dr. Pepper, wouldn't you like to be a Pepper too/ Steppin' through, yodel-ay-hee-hoo/ Oui oui mon cheri, a comment-allez-vous?") and girl-chasing follow-up "Breaker 1/9" (with its great string of impotence jokes in the second verse), there's also a hardcore street consciousness seeping through, and it's manifested even more in the keep-shit-real diatribes in "Soul by the Pound" and "Charms Alarm". The casual misogyny scattered through some of these earlier cuts (and highlighted in the Beatnuts-produced "Heidi Hoe") might be the most uncharacteristic element of all, but it also shows how far his attitude's come since.
The heart of Thisisme Then is four tracks from Resurrection, and they're revelatory after the Dollar material even if they're familiar on their own. Within two years, his manic flow became streamlined, meaning overtook wordplay and his main production partner No I.D. shifted from elbow-throwing boom-bap to subtler, jazzier elements; the resulting album is one of rap's most personal and real-life-centered albums-- even if its reputation was hard-earned. (In 94, The Source gave it a lukewarm 3.5 mics out of 5; by 98 it was one of their 100 Best Rap Albums.) "I Used to Love H.E.R." gets all the love, and after 13 years its rap-as-girl-gone-wild metaphor still resonates, even if you're not as hardline anti-gangsta as he is here. But hearing it right after 92's "Heidi Hoe" gives it a new dimension-- the woman/genre he chastises for "always smokin' blunts and gettin' drunk… I see niggaz slammin' her, takin' her to the sewer" also winds up implicating his younger self. That search for absolution carries through "Book of Life", where he unflinchingly comes to terms with his reliance on liquor and fast food and concludes with a slick reversal of fatalism: "I don't think I'll ever be happy until I rest in peace/ Of mind, and find who I am." The other half of Common's maturing persona-- the dude who lyrically destroys shit with pinpoint focus-- rounds out the circa-94 picture with "Resurrection" and "Thisisme", and that raw brand of consciousness is something an entire subset of hip hop's been scrambling to catch up with since.
Which brings us to the 1997-era material-- five tracks from One Day It'll All Make Sense, along with the semi-obscure b-ball anthem "High Expectations"-- that established Common as a reputable commercial pillar of purity and Afrocentrism in a post-coast-beef world. All five of the album tracks included here take the ethos of Resurrection, polish it ‘til it gleams and throw in a few notable collaborators: Lauryn Hill's singing adds weight to an already heavy look at the personal stake in the abortion debate on "Retrospect for Life"; Cee-Lo waxes theological on "G.O.D. (Gaining One's Definition)"; Q-Tip stops in to reprise the hook to Tribe's "Sucka Nigga" on the out-of-context "Stolen Moments Pt. III". But Common's lyricism still takes center stage, bordering Ghostface-level multilayered abstraction on "All Night Long" and reminiscing about his Chicago-landmark upbringing of hip hop and teenage restlessness in "Reminding Me (of Sef)". Calling this CD The Best of Common should have an unspoken "Vol. 1" appended to it, but even with the weird formative years included, there's little here that wouldn't fit under a title like this.
