Maps of Music

Let Love (2019)

Where the lyrics of Let Love take you, and where it was really made.

Critics heard a softer, more personal Common on this record, and one reviewer called it a time capsule of black music history.

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Let Love: twelfth studio album by American rapper Common
Released August 30, 2019
Released by Loma Vista Recordings and Concord Records
Guest appearances from Samora Pinderhughes, Daniel Caesar, Swizz Beatz, Leikeli47, BJ the Chicago Kid, A-Trak, Jill Scott, Leon Bridges and Jonathan McReynolds
Rapper Common is the artist behind the record
Nine featured guests spread across the album's tracks

The album is Common's twelfth studio album, so it is a full-length release in a long studio career
Its first single, 'HER Love', featuring Daniel Caesar, came out on June 14, 2019, ahead of the album's release
The album's release came in late summer 2019 through two labels, Loma Vista Recordings and Concord Records
Critics later compared its tone with Common's earlier album Black America Again
Common's optimistic nature shapes the album's mood, according to a reviewer

Lonnie Rashid Lynn, born March 13, 1972 in Chicago, Illinois.
Began rapping in the late 1980s at Luther High School South in Chicago.
Formed the rap trio C.D.R., which dissolved by 1991.
Debuted as a solo artist in 1992 under the name Common Sense, later shortened to Common after a lawsuit from a reggae band of the same name.

Released Can I Borrow a Dollar? (1992), Resurrection (1994), and One Day It'll All Make Sense (1997) on Relativity Records and then MCA Records.
Gained mainstream success through the Soulquarians collective, especially with Like Water for Chocolate (2000), produced largely by J Dilla.
Electric Circus (2002) was experimental and less commercially successful.
Signed to Kanye West's GOOD Music; Be (2005) and Finding Forever (2007) followed, with Finding Forever debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Won Grammys for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for "Southside" and Best R&B Song for "Love of My Life" with Erykah Badu.
Later albums The Dreamer/The Believer (2011), Nobody's Smiling (2014), Black America Again (2016), and A Beautiful Revolution Pts. 1 and 2 (2020–2021).
Won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Glory" from Selma (2014) with John Legend.
Acting career includes Hell on Wheels, Wanted, Date Night, John Wick: Chapter 2, and Silo.
Won a Primetime Emmy for "Letter to the Free" from the documentary 13th.
Made his Broadway debut in Between Riverside and Crazy (2023).

The Independent's Roisin O'Connor gave the album 4 out of 5 stars
She wrote that Let Love feels far more personal and softer in tone than Black America Again
She said Common's optimistic nature gives the album an uplifting vibe
She noted that the closing track God is Love gently criticizes people who use their religion to persecute others
She summed up the album's message as learning from our mistakes
She said the album could not be more timely
Exclaim!'s Erin Lowers gave the album 9 out of 10
Lowers described the album as part spoken word, part bars and part educational
Lowers said it lays soulful jazz samples, piano-driven melodies and electric funk bass lines over its tracks
Lowers called the album a time capsule of the greatest moments in black music history
Lowers described the lyrics as hard-hitting reality about the present day, both good and bad
Lowers said the album also tells a captivating story about using love as a weapon to overcome
Lowers noted the reality that sometimes love also fails, whether romantic, platonic or social

The first single, 'HER Love', featuring Daniel Caesar, was released on June 14, 2019, before the album came out.
The album brings together nine featured guests, including Swizz Beatz, A-Trak and Jill Scott.
The Independent's review set this record against Black America Again and found it more personal.
Exclaim! called the album a time capsule of black music history, pointing to its jazz samples and funk bass lines.
A review in The Independent singled out the closing track God is Love for its gentle criticism of religious persecution.