Resurrection

“Resurrection” is the second studio album by Common, released under the name Common Sense on October 4, 1994, through Relativity Records.

The story

Recorded at Battery Studios in Chicago, the album showed a marked step forward from his debut, trading cruder moments for introspective, socially aware writing. It is split into two halves, “East Side of Stony” and “West Side of Stony,” named for Stony Island Avenue on the South Side where he grew up. The closing “Pop’s Rap” features spoken word from his father, Lonnie “Pops” Lynn, a tradition Common continued on later albums. It was his last release as Common Sense before a legal dispute with a California band forced the name change.

Sound and production

No I.D. produced the bulk of the album, with the Twilite Tone also contributing. The music draws on jazz-leaning, sample-based production that frames Common’s increasingly detailed lyricism.

Legacy

Sales were slight and the album peaked at No. 179 on the Billboard 200, but critics praised it widely, and The Source later named it among its 100 best rap albums. Lead single “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” which uses a woman as an allegory for hip hop’s drift toward gangsta rap and commercialism, became his signature song. It also sparked a feud with Ice Cube, who answered on Westside Connection’s “Westside Slaughterhouse”; Common replied with “The Bitch in Yoo,” and the two later made peace.