Common: Electric Circus

(Herald rating: * * * * )

On his fifth album, Chicago's Common shows there is an artistic side to being a hip-hop artist.

He sounds like his allegiance is to the music, its history and its possibilities, not its market share. And his lyrics are the product of a vivid, psychedelic imagination, too.

All that can make his fifth album something of a mind-bender, care of its inside-out beats and warped scratching (including the Roots and the Neptunes), and its sense of musical history and supporting players which extend beyond hip-hop boundaries.

Although the guest list includes soul divas (Mary J. Blige, Erykah Badu, and Jill Scott) and fellow rappers aplenty, it also has Sonny of Christian nu-metallers P.O.D. on the shouty Electric Wire Hustler Flower and Stereolab's ethereal Laetitia Sadler on the twitchy New Wave. Meanwhile, other tracks tangentially invoke James Brown (Soul Power), a certain guitar legend (Jimi was a Rock Star), and the jazz age (the swingin' I Am Music). It's not rap as we know it but its sheer inventiveness makes it an off-kilter delight.
Label: MCA