Invocation.

"Envisioning the hereafter, listenin to Steve Wonder
On a Quest for Love like the Proceed drummer
I strike like lightning and don't need thunder
Inhale imagination and breathe wonder
That's your lady, I used to run up in her and G weed from her
It's a cold world and niggas need summer
At times my going forward seems like retreat
As I rewrite rhyme after rhyme and throw away beats
Growing into my britches, outgrowing the streets
There's a thin line between war and peace, whores and jeeps
Ignore MCs like beeps, scribblin freedom on pages
My third eye is like pink eye, seemin contagious
Redeemin the ancients, with ageless rhyme jargon
I feel Mexican, hip hop is my garden
Don't give a fuck where you chartin, certain shit I can't honor
It ain't that you sellin, it's your karma
Rappers I monitor like a chaperon, you large and haven't grown
Poetically perform fly-bys, another rapper gone
The stage becomes a catacomb, I rap like a mummy
Not for the money, I could have sampled Diana Ross a long time ago
My mind of flow is like motor key 20
Youngblood said he had dimes, I prayed that he see twenty
Hollerin at the brothers, either you gon be a thug or a man
Flip drugs or get land, I can see my man Rashad
As he described how the bucks hit him
And said slugs was still stuck in him, when it rained, it fucked wit him
This bucket interrupt wisdom and asked when my album was comin
I said it's here
It's here
its here
its here
its here
its here
its here
its here
its here......"


this verse was like common spitting a poem, and the beat happened to match it perfectly.

when people ask me why Common is my favorite rapper, i try to tell them that the dude is NOT this love inducing hippie. This is the same man who lyrically wrecked O'Shea Jackson and his crew. Common's art to me is precious because it was so personal. During this album, he was at a time in his life where he was trying to find peace of mind. His album cover hints at nostalgia, he brought Cee-Lo in to talk about G.O.D. (Gaining One's Definition), and his first single for the album was an ode to a dead friend. Lyrically, he moved from his metaphor filled, hi-paced flow in favor of more lines with obscure depth and a slower delivery to let the beats breathe easier.



So in every way, you can say this was a documented picture of evolution, and this verse sums EVERYTHING up.

Common was ill, introspective, and just as much a boy as he was a man. Whether "on a ?uest for Love like the 'Proceed' Drummer," or "feeling Mexican in the garden of hip-hop" he was doing exemplary jobs of being himself.

and that nigga was ill as shit.