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Jul 22, 2014Nobody’s Smiling is defiant, as full of commanding musicality as it is of Common’s own provocation.
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The WireDec 2, 2014He's nowhere near as agile as he once was, but that slack is picked up on a handful of collaborations with sharp young rappers like Lil Herb and Vince Staples. [Sep 2014, p.65]
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Q MagazineAug 28, 2014Sounds dangerously like a genuine hip-hop album. [Sep 2014, p.114]
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MojoAug 20, 2014In all, a deep treat almost on a par with Common's mid-'90s prime. [Sep 2014, p.88]
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Aug 8, 2014Common's latest, Nobody's Smiling, centers on the war-torn streets of South Side, Chicago that Common left nearly two decades ago, a setting the 42-year-old rapper navigates like a hardened local. The album's best moments explore this tension, proving that despite Common's age and commercial success, he can figuratively inhabit Chiraq better than most of the city's rising stars.
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Jul 31, 2014His latest--entirely produced by long-time collaborator No I.D.--reveals an enlivened emcee, the same forceful voice who gave us classic albums such as Be and Like Water For Chocolate.
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Jul 29, 2014When Common is feeling himself few can do it better, but one of the best things he does on "Nobody's Smiling" is spread the love around.
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Jul 25, 2014Artistically, it’s a new and deeply concentrated side of the veteran MC we haven’t seen and, as a result, it comes off as one of his best albums yet.
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Jul 23, 2014For the most part, Common's been an almost staggeringly consistent presence in music for years, and then fittingly, his new album Nobody's Smiling, is as good as anything he's done.
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Jul 22, 2014While not flawlessly executed, Common arguably regains some of the relevance he may have lost from his last couple of albums with the focus of Nobody's Smiling.
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Jul 21, 2014The second half, where he traces his friendship with J Dilla, involves some brilliant storytelling, and perhaps the only moments during the album's sessions when Common cracked a smile while recording. It's a touching finish to the rapper's best album since Be.
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Jul 21, 2014With electrifying cameos from Chicago’s Vince Staples and song-stealing Dreezy, these vital, relevant tracks remind how good Common can be when he’s focused.
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Jul 21, 2014Common has crafted one of the best hip-hop albums of the year so far.
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Jul 25, 2014The album's most convincing when tackling the push-and-pull conflict between the individual and his hometown, as Common's good intentions are buoyed by memory, generosity, and attentiveness to his craft.
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Jul 24, 2014Nobody’s Smiling is a well-rounded discourse on gang violence and inner city plight in Chicago that translates to almost every urban city in America.
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Sep 5, 2014Edgy songs whose No I.D.-driven production fits adeptly in conversation with the beats dominating contemporary hip-hop. [Sep/Oct 2014, p.100]
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Jul 25, 2014It has some of Com's tightest storytelling in years.
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Jul 21, 2014The rapping is muscular, self-assured and occasionally even startling, as in the offbeat accents during a stretch of “Hustle Harder.” Which makes the missteps all the more vexing, none more so than “Diamonds,” with a hook and verse by Big Sean and a premise already picked clean by Kanye West.
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Jul 31, 2014For a smooth talker like Common, talking through his ruminations could easily lead to talking around them, so on Nobody’s Smiling, he leaves a lot of the talking to others.
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Jul 22, 2014A collection of mostly forgettable tracks that tries far too hard and has little to show for it.
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Jul 29, 2014He set out to depict the pains of contemporary Chicago, but he ended up just making another Common album.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 40 out of 49
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Mixed: 7 out of 49
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Negative: 2 out of 49
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Jul 23, 2014
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Apr 28, 2015
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Aug 24, 2014