The blog Real Hip Hip Since 79 has posted the original studio recording of ‘The People’ from Common’s album Finding Forever.  The main difference between this version and the final cut is the hook, here sung by Common himself.  Dwele’s take, used for the album, is obviously more polished, but it’s nice to hear Common’s genuine, if shaky, effort.
DOWNLOAD: Common – ‘The People’ (Original recording)
‘The People’ is a classic, and was my favourite track on Forever.  Common’s lyrics are mostly good.  His rhymes touch on a variety of social justice …

by Angie B. Fresh
[Ed: Angie B. Fresh is the host of 'The Corner' on CFUV 101.9 FM in Victoria, B.C.  She's also the newest contributor to 4080 Records!  Read on for her inaugural post: a passionate, articulate survey of the last decade's best hip-hop.  And if you know what's good for you, tune in to her show every Friday from 5-6 p.m.]
Being a child of the late 80’s, this past decade has been the first I can remember from start to finish.  And while I can’t speak for my generational …

That’s right.  I managed to make it out to Ann Arbor, MI to catch Common and Slum Village play one of the dopest shows I’ve seen.  Common, an artist I’ve been trying to see for years, literally blew my mind.  It was definitely one of the most energetic and crowd-focused shows I’ve had the pleasure to being to.
The whole thing started off with a hilarious faux-battle.  A radio host brought two random kids out of the audience, and surprisingly neither of them were emcees.  And neither of them were very …

Despite our hype, it doesn’t look like Common’s Universal Mind Control is getting too much love in the hip hop community.  That doesn’t mean it’s not a commercial success for Common. In case you haven’t seen it, Common and Afrika Bambaataa have a little TV spot for Microsoft’s Zune media player.

All tangents aside, I’ve gotta say I just can’t get excited about this album. And the readers over at Check the Rhime seem to agree with me.  Some of the comments are reproduced below:
ans says: December 2nd, 2008 at 4:14 …

To commemorate Barack Obama’s historic election on Tuesday, Common has released a track from his upcoming album Universal Mind Control. Called “Changes,” the song was written to “inspire the young world to believe that change can happen.” Common also envisioned it “as a great inaugural song for Barack Obama.”
Check it out:
Common – Changes (Universal Mind Control, 2009)
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Foreign Exchange, the group comprised of Little Brother’s Phonte and Dutch producer Nicolay, are preparing to release their second album, Leave It All Behind.  In order to build hype for the project, they’ve apparently released a couple of teaser videos.  I’m not exactly sure what exactly they’re trying to convey, but the short clips are interesting nonetheless.  Check ‘em out, courtesy of Hip Hop Is Deadly:

FE-LIAB-1 from Foreign Exchange on Vimeo.

Foreign Exchange – LIAB2 from Foreign Exchange on Vimeo. 
Next up is a tune called “Highway” by Kayda-Luz.  I can’t remember how I …

John McWhorter is an “author” who writes for the New York Sun. He’s got a book coming out called About the Beat: Why Hiphop Can’t Save Black America and in an effort to stir up some attention about it he’s written an article claiming that conscious hip hop is a myth.
In his incredibly awkward (I’m talking puberty-level awkward) rant, he fundamentally misunderstands the argument in support of hip hop and conscious hip hop in particular. With a flawed understanding, it’s no surprise that he arrives at his arrogant …

I’m really quite sad to say this. We here at 4080 Records have been long time fans of Common.
You can remember by our last post that we were very hyped when Common announced he’d be dropping his new album Invincible Summer.
Maybe it’s just me, but I’m definitely not feeling the first single Universal Mind Control (U.M.C). It’s featuring Pharell so you knew he it had to have some sort of electro-influence. To me, it sounds like the bastard lovechild of bad house music and a basement …

Omer Saar (of universoulproductions fame) has cobbled together the Green Album, a collection of Al Green tracks mixed with acapellas from various rappers.
You’ll hear some Jay-Z, MF Doom, Common,  the Fugees, Pharycde, and others on this record.  So definitely a pretty dope tracklisting.
Check it all out at his blog here.
Now I know it seems suspiciously similar to the AlMatic post we did earlier, but it’s definitely not.  The Green Album is about 6 times as dope and definitely worth your time to download.
And it’s free.  I don’t know how long …

Or so it seems.
Joe Farrell is a saxophonist who produced a track called Upon This Rock back in the 70s.  Not normally that big a deal, I’d say.  Except for the fact that this song was sampled in everything.  Some of the biggest hip hop groups have used this sample to make some killer hits
But now there is trouble.  His daughter has brought a suit against Kanye, Common, Method Man, and Redman.  Also their labels.  She’s alleging that they used the sample without permission.
It’s a sad story, and Pitchfork has …