Maps of Music

Resurrection (1994)

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

This album is the last to carry the rapper's full stage name, Common Sense. The 'Sense' was dropped after it.

Key places

Recorded at Battery Studios, Chicago (1994)

Recording site Chicago Recording Company — Discogs credits list Battery Studios in Chicago as a recording location for this album. The point sits at city-center coordinates, so the exact building is not marked. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Resurrection: second album by American rapper Common Sense
• Released October 4, 1994 by Relativity Records
• Mainly produced by No I.D., who also produced most of the 1992 debut Can I Borrow A Dollar?
• Last album to feature the full stage name; the "Sense" portion was dropped afterward
• Divided into two sections: "East Side of Stony" (tracks 1-7) and "West Side of Stony" (tracks 8-15)
• Stony Island Avenue runs through the South Side of Chicago, where Common was raised
• Closing track "Pop's Rap" is spoken word and poetry by Common's father, Lonnie "Pops" Lynn Sr.
• Short interludes form a loose narrative about day-to-day life on the South Side

Background

• Songs reflect the emcee's personal growth since the 1992 debut
• Crasser moments of the debut, such as "Heidi Hoe", are greatly toned down
• "I Used to Love H.E.R." re-imagines hip-hop as a once unadulterated woman led astray by materialistic elements of life
• The conflicted woman works as an allegory that let Common covertly express disdain at the gangsta-inspired turn of the genre
• The song led to a rift with Ice Cube, who took exception to its insinuation about West Coast gangsta style
• Westside Connection's "Westside Slaughterhouse" and the album Bow Down hurled insults; Common replied with "The Bitch in Yoo"
• The rivalry was settled out of public view at a peacemaking function held by Louis Farrakhan at his home, after the murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.

Recording

• Recording credits list Battery Studios in Chicago
• Recording and mixing credits also list Mirror Image
• Mastered at Frankford/Wayne Mastering Labs
• Track 7 samples "Proteck Ya Neck" by Wu-Tang Clan
• Track 10 samples "Power Of Love" by Alton McClain & Destiny

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• 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.

Career

• 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).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: Touré wrote that the album belongs among the best recent hardcore albums, alongside Illmatic by Nas, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) by Wu-Tang Clan, and Ready to Die by the Notorious B.I.G.
• The Source: originally rated 3.5 mics
• The album received critical acclaim but not a significant amount of mainstream attention

Reappraisal

• Frequently held to be a classic album by hip-hop critics
• Signified the arrival of a level of maturity in Common's work and the end of his first phase, which had a more straightforward, underground-based sound
• Later albums delved into experimentation and themes such as love, which perhaps marked a second phase
• In 1998, The Source selected it as one of its 100 Best Hip Hop Albums

Records

• Peaked at number 179 on the Billboard 200
• About 2,000 copies sold; dropped out of the charts the following week
• Sold poorly despite critical acclaim

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Track listing: all tracks produced by No I.D. except tracks 12 and 14, produced by Ynot
• The album was first released under the name "Common Sense"; the "Sense" was later dropped after a legal case with a California ska band also named Common Sense
• "Thisisme" became the title of Common's greatest hits compilation, Thisisme Then: The Best of Common
• Common explains the album track by track in Brian Coleman's book Check the Technique
• Italian CD reissue in 2009 by Sony Music

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com · it.wikipedia.org

Maps of Ages ↗ (mapsofages.com)

Privacy · Contact