Common brings conscious hip-hop style to Worcester

Joanna James

Soul-inspiring hip-hop artist Common isn’t afraid to extol a positive message through his raps.

He has done it yet again with his latest album “Finding Forever,” combating the Dirty South and gangsta rap that has been recently under fire for lyrics disrespecting women and glamorizing violence and drugs.
Although the Chicago emcee used his microphone to emphasize issues of education, equal opportunity and compassion during his show last weekend at the Palladium in Worcester, one of the 14 stops on the 2K Sports Bounce Tour, the sermonizing stalled his usually energetic, flowing performances.

Q-Tip, former frontman of A Tribe Called Quest and the evening’s opening act, showed what makes him a veteran of the game worth learning from. Judging from the response of the audience, Q-Tip still has the charisma and stage presence to captivate a crowd. Claiming to be one of the “top 10 emcees,” Tip helped lead the early ’90s movement of intellectual rap paired with jazzy, hard-drum-kicking beats.

Q-Tip’s new single, “Work It Out,” a danceable track, departs from the jazzy melodic flows of Tribe, but still won the hearts of the packed house. He continued to rock through greats like “Got ’Til It’s Gone” and “Find A Way” from Tribe’s classic “The Love Movement,” before delving even further back into the Tribe catalogue.

It was fitting for Common to tour with Q-Tip since he may have come up on the shoulders of such visionaries as A Tribe Called Quest and The Roots. But the Chicago lyricist has carved out his own space in the industry, and has finally received the record sales to match his critical acclaim after 13 years in the business and six albums. In 2005, Common released “Be,” an album full of social commentary highlighted by lyrics about unity and peace.

Although Common was snubbed at the Grammys the following year, it just spurred him to talk louder and reach more masses with “Finding Forever,” which reached the number one spot on the Billboard Top 200 back in August.

Musukulla Massaquoi, one of many female attendees at the concert, grew up on hip-hop and admires artists such as Common and Q-Tip.

“Common is a teacher, he’s a rapper who speaks knowledge and there aren’t many like him around,” said the 30-year-old from Cambridge.

When it came time for Common to hit the stage, he scored with tracks like the socially conscious “U, Black Maybe,” a thought provoking song about race, the perception of race, and the stigma of race. He took time between songs to preach his overall message for “peace and strength,” and asked the audience to hold their fists up in unity while he spoke of those “born a person of color [who] must deal with a lack of education, health care, opposition, drugs … we’re here to change that.”

Although the brief on-stage soliloquies didn’t distract from the overall performance, the acting improvisations for songs such as “Testify” did. The video for the song features a woman in court asked to testify against her man.

On stage, Common unsuccessfully attempted to act out that background through breaks in the song during which he sat on a stool and acted as if he was handcuffed, crying or, finally, kneeling down praying. These unnecessary improvisations and lengthy interludes between songs stalled the performance and took away from the trademark stage presence and spirit that has enthralled his core audience.

During “Misunderstood,” another “Finding Forever” track, Common rattled off a list of African Americans he feels have been misinterpreted by mainstream society, ranging from Tupac Shakur, to Michael Vick, to the imprisoned boys in Jena, La., to Ms. Lauryn Hill, whose mention received a round of applause. Common maintained that he is for “the people,” the everyday people working hard to make a living, before segueing into, well, “The People,” the third track on “Finding Forever.”

One fan in the audience, Patrick Bernard, said he liked that Common offered a positive message throughout the show.

“When I listen to Jay-Z or 50 Cent, it’s more for entertainment value, whereas with Common or Mos Def and rappers like that, they’ve actually got something to say and it’s worth listening to,” said Bernard.

After playing a number of songs from his recent albums and some from his earlier career, mixing hip-hop form with bursts of soul and progressive jazz, Common also recited some classic hip-hop verses, digging deep in the crates for landmark lines from Boogie Down Productions, The Notorious B.I.G. and Nas.

To finish off the evening, Common treated the audience his usual stage routine of freestyling for a few minutes. The relevant wordsmith mixed in lines specific to Worcester, name-checked Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez’s walk-off home run in the playoffs against the Angels, tied in basketball star Kevin Garnett’s trade to the Celtics and, of course, his distaste for President Bush.