Why Common can never be forgiven.

Seven years ago, I saw Common at a show at Antone's. He'd just released his fourth album, "Like Water For Chocolate", and was finally getting some mainstream recognition to go along with his considerable talent. Common was my favorite rapper at the time, and even though none of my friends cared about him, and few even knew who he was, I resolved to go to the show by myself if I had to. I did.

It was the best show I'd ever gone to at the time. After the Black Eyed Peas, in the dues paying, pre-fame stage of their career opened up for him, Common hit the stage in knit pants and a daishiki and ripped it for the next two hours. Nearly a decade later, signs abounded that if I went back to see him, I'd be paying to watch an old man who'd lost his edge and wanted to make boring music for the coffee shop crowd. Those signs were his past three albums. But each of those had handfuls of songs that sounded like the hungry Common of old, and I figured as long as he didn't go overboard doing new material, it'd be a great concert.

In short, Common ran over my heart with an 18-wheeler. He didn't perform a SINGLE song off any of his first four albums, three of which are incredible. His bland new material dominated that night, making it sound more like a poetry slam than a hip hop show. He didn't even do his most famous song, 1994's "I Used to Love H.E.R.", I guess because most of his fans think his career began when he started hanging out with Kanye West a couple years back and didn't know what the hell a Common was in 1994. The newer songs he did, with a couple of exceptions, may be fine to play at a PETA rally, playing hackey-sack and smoking American Spirits, but they lacked the energy and vitality of his previous work.

I guess I have nobody to blame but myself for paying to go to this concert. I'd heard his recent work and didn't particularly enjoy it, and I knew going into the show that said recent work was making him more money than he'd ever had and exposing him to a whole new fan base. So I realized that hippie, incense and sandals PETA spokesman Common would be in attendance, because he's more popular than the raw, superlyricist Common of the past had ever been. But I thought the latter might show up for more than a couple of songs, and I was sadly mistaken. I paid twice what I'd paid in 2000 for a concert that wasn't half as good. Thanks for nothing, Com. I should've wasted my money on ACL.