Hip-hop’s 50th anniversary placed the question of aging to the forefront. Long revered as a young person’s game, the culture was forced to grapple with its long tail, and the spectre of established artists still producing great work. The renaissance of Nas is a great example, while Black Thought’s work alongside Danger Mouse equally felt adult, or mature, even. Joining this lineage, Common aligns with Pete Rock – a pairing of dreams for fans of a certain vintage, ‘The Auditorium Vol. 1’ is nothing less than two pivotal artists working their asses off in the studio.
While it’s a simple thrill to hear these two connect, ‘The Auditorium Vol. 1’ excels by asking profound questions both of its maker, and their audience. Placing rap – and hip-hop culture more generally – in the landscape of Black experience, it moves between personal and societal meanings. ‘Dreamin’ is a fantastic opener, the direct yet multi-faceted production acting as a backdrop for Common’s verse, at once current but also meta, flipping various meanings of the title throughout generations of Black authorship.
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‘Chi-Town Do It’ roots the two in their New York localities, while the profound ‘This Man’ continually searches for answers. The rugged sonics of ‘Wise Up’ is a titanic moment on the record, merging boom-bap with an almost industrial tendency towards noise. ‘Stellar’ reaches back to the 90s playbook but tethers it to some future-facing instincts, while the bubbling ‘All Kind Of Ideas’ is a thrilling bass-led excursion.
While the record naturally pivots on the relationship between MC and producer, ‘The Auditorium Vol. 1’ nonetheless locates space for fresh voices. Bilal offers wisdom on ‘So Many People’, while Jennifer Hudson is angelic on ‘A GOD (There Is)’; the appearance of De La Soul’s Posdnous on ‘When The Sun Shines Again’ is truly the stuff of dreams, a union of rap all-timers.
Finely sculpted and perfectly executed, ‘The Auditorium Vol. 1’ finds Common and Pete Rock utilising experience to their advantage. Creating a storm on its release, the perfectly executed roll-out trod the line between fan-service and expertly distilled creativity. Labelled Vol. 1 in the title, this could be the start of a pivotal new journey from two hip-hop auteurs.
9/10
Words: Robin Murray
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