Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Believer


Honestly, did not care for Common at all until I saw him in the movie "Just Wright" released last year where he played the role of an injured basketball player who ends up getting injured, and eventually falling in love with his therapist on the road to recovery. All I thought at the time was, danggg he's sexy! BUT recently I've been listening to more of his music and reading up on him a lot more and I must say, I like what I see and hear. Rapper/actor Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr. otherwise known as 'Common' is someone who has been in the game for just about two decades already but hadn't released an album since 2008 when he released, Universal Mind Control. This new song titled "The Believer" which will be featured on his new album, The Dreamer/The Believer was released earlier this week. The song features extremely successful artist John Legend and is said to be the only track on the upcoming album that will have any guest singer as well. The song, in my opinion, talks about the faith that Common, as a rapper, has in God himself and the belief that He is always watching over humankind and has great plans for us. He seems to point out bad things/relationships in the world between people but turns the mood into a positive one by telling of how God will see us through it. My favorite part of the song is when he says, 

"I know that God watches, From one Kings dream He was able to Barack us, the Prophets, nothing can stop us, Believe!"

Common is an artist who is always bringing religious meanings to his music so this is no surprise. Anyways...overall, I really like the song. I think the lyrics are just so deep and make you really think about how arrogant human beings are and make me want to change for the better. The Dreamer/The Believer hits stores on December 20th so you should listen to the song and if u like it, go out and buy the album! Pretty sure there'll be some good stuff on there!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Swim Good

"Swim Good" is a song off of Frank Oceans mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra. The song was released back in February of 2011 but it's a song I was just recently introduced to by a friend of mine. From what I can see, the song is a sort of personal thought from Ocean himself, talking about how he is ready to "swim into the ocean" and basically cleanse himself of his past heartbreaks, both those that he has gone through and those he has caused to other people, in order to hopefully find piece of mind and eventually find happiness again. The lyrics and music video to the song make it seem like he is having suicidal thoughts about basically driving himself into the ocean and in doing so, ending his life. However, I think this is just a way of him saying he wants to get rid of his past and start a new life free of all the pain and suffering which is making him feel guilty about things he's done in his past and bad choices he has made. Overall, I'm not too crazy about the song and I definitely don't like the music video made for the song...what's up with the guy with that weird mask eating popcorn at the beginning??? Weirdddddd....
I personally like this version better than the original =)