A recent cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo featured a cartoon of a terrified Barack Obama fleeing a hail of police bullets, accompanied by the headline ‘Obama, an ordinary citizen once again’. Its message is clear: the eight years served by America’s first black president didn’t result in a more tolerant society but, following the surprise election of Donald Trump, ended with a dangerous groundswell of racism among America’s white population.
Though ‘Black America Again’ - Common’s 11th studio album - was recorded before the November 8 election, its themes clearly acknowledge this moral deficit. Little wonder, perhaps. Common is wordsmith who has spent his career honing a distinctive style of syncopated jazz-rap that is heavily informed by politics, society and the artist’s own Christian faith.
But Common has never been pious. Red Wine, A Bigger Picture Called Free and Unfamiliar are cool, soulful cuts that give a warm elegance to the record, and while his swaggering vocal delivers a defiant anger throughout, there is little question about his creative maturity and focus.
That said, it’s an album that frequently breaks out into rootsy club-friendly bangers, with tracks like Pyramids, Home and Joy and Peace marrying darling retro samples with heavy-tom drum loops straight from the ‘90s.
That’s no great surprise given that production duties here are handled by long-time collaborator No I.D., whose bassy beats have accompanied a hefty chunk of Common's records since 1992's 'Can I Borrow a Dollar?'. Crucially, No I.D.'s work here easily bypasses 2014’s ‘Nobody’s Smiling’, which too often aped the trap-influenced 808 loops of the age with varying success. This album is altogether more confident in itself.
The title track is probably the most direct. As Common notes in the album commentary: “The seed of this was the black life that has been devalued and taken away [...] but there’s always hope, and we are resilient and beautiful people who overcome so many things, so Stevie Wonder basically gives you the outro that gives you a new narrative, a new story.”
This blue-chip collab is only bettered by the other one on the album: the John Legend-led Rain. This, combined with the superb Little Chicago Boy, rounds off a record of fine tuning and unblinking focus. They are both magnificent pieces of music that diversify the album and elevate its musicality.
American minorities are in trouble and ‘Black America Again’ acknowledges that. But it does so with a dignity and poise that is both diligent and disarming. It's an album of exceptional intelligence with a sound emotional core, and it deserves to be heard.
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