Pitchfork

thisisme then: the best of common should come emblazoned with a warning a little bigger than its lowercase "then." The 15-track collection from the Chicago MC is culled almost entirely from Common's first three albums, all released in the 90s on the Relativity label: 1992's Can I Borrow a Dollar?, 1994's Resurrection, and 1997's One Day It'll All Make Sense.

There's a single exception-- "High Expectations" from the soundtrack to Soul in the Hole, a 1997 documentary on Brooklyn streetballers-- but it's not exactly a career highlights package without "The Light", is it?

Eh, we're just griping. thisismethen does a fine job of hitting the highlights from his Common Sense period and (slightly) beyond, and it's fleshed out with guest appearances from Lauryn Hill, Cee-Lo, Erykah Badu and Q-Tip. Pop the disc in your computer device and you'll be greeted with the videos for "Take It EZ", "I Used to Love H.E.R.", "Retrospect for Life", and (non-thisismethen cut) "Invocation". The disc drops November 27 on Relativity/Legacy.

As for Common, he'll be on the big screen soon in the second-most highly anticipated thing called American Gangster you're likely to take in this fall. And he recently launched the Common Ground Foundation, "an effort dedicated to the empowerment and development of urban youth through education," according to a press release.

thisismethen:

01 Take It EZ
02 Breaker 1/9
03 Soul by the Pound
04 Charms Alarm
05 Heidi Hoe
06 I Used to Love H.E.R.
07 Book of Life
08 Resurrection
09 thisisme
10 Retrospect for Life [ft. Lauryn Hill]
11 Reminding Me (Of Sef) [ft. Chantay Savage]
12 All Night Long [ft. Erykah Badu]
13 G.O.D. (Gaining One's Definition) [ft. Cee-Lo]
14 Stolen Moments Pt. III [intro/outro: Q-Tip]
15 High Expectations