Rapping style that is. Maybe I shouldn't even say style, but rather content. I know this might be a little dated, but I was listening to one of the songs from UMC the other day, and I'm still trying to decide whether I like it or not. I mean, as most have probably realized from listening to his latest album, Common went with the more pop appeal, with almost every song on Universal Mind Control about sex (or at least leaning on some sort of sexual content). I don't know if I'm still just a little thrown off by the album as a whole because it's not what I expected or what.

Common himself admitted that he was attempting to go a little more mainstream with the album, which I can actually understand. Usually I would cringe if an artist was to say that, but people like Common, Talib Kweli, and others that have been so consistent throughout the years and don't get their just due, I think that they should be able to branch out a little bit and gain a bigger following. I just don' t think I was ready for all of this, though. Even with Be, the single "Go" was a little more pop than Common would have usually gone, but there was still a lot of the usual from him on the album. You don't get very much on his latest project, and I just want to know what people think. Not even necessarily if you like it or not because I think there are good songs on the album, but do you prefer it?

Even from initial listen, I thought that some of the production just didn't match with Common's style. There were a few that I was feeling, like "Announcement" I thought was great, but "UMC" (the single) just didn't feel like Common. I even thought the lyrics were really nice, but Common over that beat just took me a while to get used to. Either way, I thought the album was pretty good, but just way different and wanted to know what the people thought.