Sy ShacklefordThere’s something of an interconnectedness in this album’s presentation. It’s not just because the architects behind it, Common and Pete Rock, have collaborated prior on tracks like “The Bitch In Yoo” and “Verbal Murder 2”, but also because of the imagery. The cover for “The Auditorium, Vol. 1” is an image of Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, with Com Sense and the Chocolate Boy Wonder headlining. That theatre was built nearly 100 years ago by an architectural firm named Rapp & Rapp, and that’s just what Common and Pete Rock have presented us with. Additionally, naming the album “auditorium” was a nice touch, as though to say, “You wanna see hip-hop, here it be!”
Wasting no time and not adding any filler, the psychedelic soul of “Dreamin’” kicks off the album with Common sounding as though he hasn’t aged vocally. Lyrically, he name-drops several key figures in Black music over some dream-like background vocals. Common may be considered a “conscious rapper”, but his mastery over the English language is both brutal and clever. As a testament to the latter, the piano-driven “Chi-Town Do It” has him start off his second verse with these double-entendre laden rhymes:
I’m from Chica-go, +come and talk to me+
You got me +feenin’+, I want the average Joe to see you (Jodeci)
+My lady, forever+, or maybe just tonight
We could be crazy in love ’cause shit is crazy in life
Pete laces his production with a soulful funk on “This Man” as Common reflects on his career, the fruits borne from it, and his future. There’s a certain Gil Scott-Heron channeling on “We’re On Our Way”, with Pete flipping a Curtis Mayfield sample into a blues sound reflecting Common’s lyrics about urban blight and progress in his native Chicago. On “Fortunate”, Common drops loose autobiographical rhymes with the theme of gratitude tying the verses together. For the production, Pete created a light backdrop with swirls of sounds. A Soulquarian reunion defines “So Many People” with Bilal on the hook. As far as the beat goes, the bass calls the most attention to it like a bombshell in a sundress on a 98-degree summer day. Lyrically, Common makes use of personification, using women as metaphors for faith, hope, and destiny across three verses.
“A GOD (There Is)” shows both the spirituality that has accompanied Common’s lyrics throughout his career and a chance for a duet with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hudson. The second single, “All Kind of Ideas”, has Pete behind both the boards and a mic, reminding us of the oft-forgotten fact that he’s got rhyming chops in addition to sampling chops. “Stellar” is one of the album’s stand-out tracks, with its head-nodding boom-bap and razor-sharp rhymes like “God MC, I came in a man’s form / When I return to dust, it’ll be a sandstorm.” Next up is “Lonesome”, which is driven by a catchy vintage sample. The album’s first single, “Wise Up”, is what began the hype about this project. With an MC Shan vocal sample looped for the hook, a barrage of sounds, and rhymes packed with rhythmic assault, Common and Pete show that hip-hop is like a paint ball- When loaded into the right weapon and placed into the hands of an experienced user, the aim is usually accurate, if not precise:
“When the Sun Shines Again” evokes throwback feelings to the days of “Like Water For Chocolate” with its soulful jazzy production and Posdnuos from De La Soul providing a guest verse. “Everything’s So Grand” features P.J. and is the album’s longest track being just a little over six minutes. The penultimate “Now And Then” is pure introspection over a pensive beat, making links between the present and yesteryear before the album’s spoken-word outro. Despite being from Chicago, Common’s rhymes and production have usually been NYC-patterned, so it makes sense for him to do an album with Pete Rock, who’s a cornerstone of the sound of New York City hip-hop. The album title has “Vol. 1” as a suffix, indicating there’s more to come. I hope so because “The Auditorium, Vol. 1” is the kind of listen that makes one wonder what’s next from the two.