An UnCommon Flavor
On his eighth album, Universal Mind Control, Common veers from his virtuous rapper guise and takes on a nastier, naughtier persona. Common, one of the most female-friendly MCs, struggles with his new role as a foul-mouthed rapper. "Sex 4 Sugar" falls flat with uninspired seduction lines like: "Girl you can touch my forces of nature/ I'm just tryin' to motivate ya." "Punch Drunk Love" suffers from blatant bedroom braggadocio and a lame Kanye West hook.
Common reverts briefly to his more familiar conscious rap mode (if only for 6 minutes), spewing off a torrent of memorable rhymes on the breezy "Changes" and the airy "Inhale". "The master like Tiger/ So much drive/ I am the definition of a ryder," he boasts on the latter. "Announcement" sums up Common's transformation: "I still Love H.E.R., she be needing the d**k. When it comes to hip hop, it's just me and my b**ch"" Those rhymes would've been a jaw-dropper 14 years ago when Comm railed against misogyny.
Electro-Tinged Hip-Hop
Universal Mind Control is not a complete renunciation on the musical end, though the Neptunes' barebones production creates an electro-pop feel. The "Planet Rock"-inspired title track "UMC" is immersed in percussion and syntheziers. "Make My Day," alongside Cee-Lo, is euphoric retro-soul at its liveliest. Too bad, such gems are far and few between on Universal Mind Control
The Neptunes laced nearly every song on Universal Mind Control with a techno-flavored hip-hop sound. The result is a mixed bag of tepid sex raps and cliched party tracks. Many of the songs leave your mind the moment they end.
Universal Heartbreak
Common jumped in the booth with Pharrell for Universal Mind Control while waiting for Kanye West to finish 808s & Heartbreak. That probably explains why the two albums turned out to be distant cousins musically afflicted by the same ailment.
Conceptually, much of Universal Mind Control falls flat on its face. Add Common's lazy lyrics and the Neptunes' incongruous production and you have an album that's equal parts heartbreak, ambition...and potential career suicide.
Release Date: December 9th, 2008
