Common featuring Pharrell "Universal Mind Control"
The first taste from his reportedly more club-oriented new album, Invincible Summer, “Universal Mind Control” casts the Artist Formerly Known As Common Sense with the Producer/ Rapper Occasionally Known As Skateboard P in a pop-lock/ “Planet Rock”/ techno-hop kind of mood that’ll have plenty of folks brushing off those old Breakin’ videotapes this season.
Over the Neptunes’ lively beat brewing, Common, anxious to distance himself from the “conscious rapper” tag, sounds super-excited as he rocks an old school flow. “Some pop, some lock/ Some move robotic/ Like cash money/ I stay in pocket,” he spits, as bubbly synth lines zing to and fro and sizzling percussion crackles beneath him. Meanwhile, Pharrell gets all Bambaataa on the metallic-lined hook, alarming the masses to the arrival of that “new shit” like some boombox-shouldering Transformer. The lyrics are nowhere near the level of depth we’re used to from the Chi-Town rapper, but that’s not important anyway since “Universal Mind Control” isn’t about educating the minds as much as it is about inspiring the body to indulge in a little break-dancing action.
DL: “Universal Mind Control” (YFH)
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