Hip hop music is inherently collaborative. The producer lays the song's foundation by creating the beat, and the MC dances on top of that foundation as he raps. Sometimes a good producer, or a good rapper, is enough to make a hit song. But to take the music to the next level – to create timeless, classic hip hop – producer and MC must operate as true collaborators, each complementing and challenging the other. As T.I. recently said of the slow process of building rapport with Dr. Dre: "Of course we can get together, he got hot beats and I got dope rhymes, so we can always get together and make music… But for people to feel what we're sayin' and for it to sound like a party comin' through your speakers, you gonna have to create some chemistry. So that's what we spent more time doing than anything else, developing that chemistry."
"The Dreamer / The Dreamer" represents a true example of a producer and MC – in this case, No I.D. and Common – operating as creative collaborators, not simply business partners. Two savvy veterans of the music industry and longtime collaborators, No I.D. and Common have put together an album that is both grand in its ambition and intimate in its listening experience. The beats have layers and layers of nuanced, thoughtful sonic levels, and the rhymes subtly explore those beats' rhythmic nooks and crannies.
Nowhere is this more apparent than on "Blue Sky," which opens with a long, anticipatory crescendo. Common enters with energy and precision. Stay Melo like Lala… Ladies go Gaga. The second verse provides a whirlwind tour of Common's ascension from aspiring MC to hip hop mainstay, above average actor, and the president's buddy. The bridge section is where the song truly becomes special. The chorus is followed by a big, bombastic drum fill, and the track takes a turn for the dramatic, the dramatic, and the epic. Common returns with a passion, rapping with a subtly distorted voice: Close my eyes, see things in front of me / I'm gone now – imagine what I'm gonna be.
Before returning to the hook one final time, the song introduces a completely new vocal melody – a late outburst of creativity that recurs throughout the album, most notably on "Celebrate." Out of the beautiful things that life could give me, crazy that I'm the one. Despite its initial optimism, the song has transformed into a stormy, intense, and fervent experience. The sky may be blue, but it is also stormy, and Common and No I.D. explore this turbulence to extraordinary effect.
"Blue Sky" transitions seamlessly – as do nearly all of the songs on "The Dreamer / The Believer" – into "Sweet," Common's so-called diss track apparently directed at singer-rapper Drake. The confrontational aspects of Sweet are fascinating for numerous reasons – a "conscious" rapper picking a fight with a man who mostly just sings about his feelings, Common turning the word "sweet" into an insult, every word Common uttered here – but the song is even more interesting on a musical level. Just like "Blue Sky," the song opens with a long, drawn out crescendo, building anticipation for when the beat finally drops. And when it does, it is something to behold. No I.D. has put together an aggressive, even threatening beat by sampling a woman singing "you look so sweet." The drums pop like a fire cracker. On top of all this, Common actually sounds menacing: Come around my crib – you know where I'm from. And later, defiantly concluding the song: It's over for you – it's over. His voice is sharp and his cadence precise, intense, and relentless.
"Sweet" transitions into "Gold," and suddenly we have ascended from the blue sky into the heavens. The beat features a melody on guitar, complemented by soaring glissandos on the piano and delicate offbeats on the wood block. No I.D. is a master of knowing exactly when to drop the percussive background from his songs, and he does so perfectly here, both during the song's first chorus and especially during its conclusion. Common is so rhythmically and sonically in tune with the beat that he almost fades into the background – another instrument in a warm, angelic beat.
On "Raw (How You Like It)," Common returns to hip hop's roots, using the medium as a platform for telling long-form stories rich in detail and wordplay. Vividly retelling the tale of a night on the town, gone slightly wrong: She ordered Bacardi, getting twisted in the limelight / Seen that ass 'cause I got hindsight. And the memorable climax, in which Common responds to a drunkard's unwelcome advances: "You Hollywood" – nah, [baby] I'm Chicago / So I cracked his head with a motherfuckin' bottle. The beat manages to take two of the most overused sounds in hip hop – the police siren and the blow horn – and use them in an interesting and fresh way. At the end of the song, No I.D. again cuts out the percussion at exactly the right time, revealing the beat's kinetic baseline and soaring vocals.
What Common and No I.D. have done with "The Dreamer / The Believer" is far more than create a consistently entertaining, frequently great album. They have created a rich sonic landscape, with treasures buried throughout its intricate layers of beats and rhymes. The album certainly misses the mark on a handful of tracks, particularly "The Believer," in which John Legend is intolerable and Common is consistently behind the beat. Despite these minor blemishes, however, the album stands as a monumental testimony to all that is possible when producer and MC work together as true partners. This is refined, elegant hip hop, the type of music that is only possible when two longtime collaborators step into the studio one more time.
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