Salim - Record Report Albums: Common Sense – Can I Borrow A Dollar? lyrics

Relativity Production: Two Piece Dark With Mild Sauce, BeatNuts Rating: 3.5 You might remember this artist from The Source's Unsigned Hype column—they won about a year ago. Well, a lot has happened for this brother since then. Now signed to Relativity Records and coming straight out of the South Side of Chicago, Common Sense is poised to achieve nationwide recognition. Rolling with his crew, The UnAmerican Caravan, Common Sense has dropped an album 13 cuts deep with Chicago flava. Common Sense has a very unique hardcore, yet jazz-influenced, underground sound. With production by Chicago's Two Piece Dark and New York's BeatNuts, the tracks are rich, bottom-heavy and very complex. On the mic, Common Sense drops a style that can be as choppy as Das EFX or smooth like Q-Tip, all within the span of a single song. And he uses his squeky but likeable voice to kick justice on cuts like “Penny For My Thoughts,” “Take It EZ” and “Breaker 1/9.” The production on the album is top notch and will do a lot to promote a long overdue “Chicago sound” in hip-hop. On many songs, such as the slammin' “Blows To The Temple,” the samples are so well-placed that it takes repeated listening to catch them all. The off-center rhyme flow and superior production will definitely place this group into its own category. However, Common Sense has so many styles that he fails to establish any vocal continuity on the LP, and while he definitely flows over all of his tracks with ease, he might want to stick with the dope flow he displays on “Just In The Nick Of Rhyme,” “Soul By The Pound” or “Two Scoops Of Raisins.” It looks like the days of sleeping on the midwest are coming to an end, and if Chicago has more of this in store, then we are all in for a treat.