When some of the most popular music publications on the Internet began posting their picks for the “Best Albums of 2011,” I allowed myself a little “I do my job better than you do” smile. Why?  Because publishing a “Best Albums of 2011” list before December 20, the day that Common’s The Dreamer/The Believer drops, is a bit like handing out medals for snowboarding at the Winter X Games before Shaun White takes his runs. Premature is an understatement.

Is The Dreamer/The Believer the best rap album of the entire year?  No, I stand by my pick of Drake’s Take Care. Is it next best?  Yes. If Take Care was a monumental work that transcended the accepted boundaries of hip-hop (which it was), Dreamer/Believer is How To Make A Hip-Hop Album 101, perfecting the traditional concept of the hip-hop record (barring a few small hiccups). Every track delivers at least a few excellent punch lines, while none sacrifice the quality of the overriding theme of the song. And No I.D. simply murders the production. Lacing every track with old-school soul vocal samples and “RZA in his prime” drum loops, No I.D. offers a clinic in the style that inspired a young Kanye West and pretty much snatches up “Producer of the Year” accolades in the process.

The dominant theme of the album, as the title suggests, is optimism. It’s not often that you find a hip-hop record bubbling with positivity, but Common delivers one that never once borders on cheesy. On the opening track, “The Dreamer,” Common declares himself “a legend like John/Lennon, I’m a dreamer” (a line that displays more skill into eight words than most emcee’s display in an entire career) before wondering if he’s a “hopeless hip-hop romantic” and allowing Maya Angelou to close the track with a spoken-word piece about immigration and the American Dream.

The next track and first single, “Ghetto Dreams,” features the only other guest verse on the album, from a little rapper you may or may not have heard of named NaS. Common delivers two sets of 16 about his ideal woman before Nasty absolutely bodies the track: “For me, getting women turned from sport to addiction/Powerful women playing the roles of submission/Laywers on leashes, congresswomen inflictin’/Pain onto my game wanted and I’m sadistic.” He may not be Maya Angeloua, but this NaS fellow may have a future in hip-hop.

The rest of the album is the Common Show, and there’s absolutely no reason to complain. Common delivers ridiculous verse after ridiculous verse, pausing only to let No I.D.’s brilliant vocal samples handle chorus duties. Every track is a lyrical tour de force (well, except “Windows,” which we’ll pretend never happened, and the last one, which is just a spoken-word piece from Common’s father. Who used to play in the NBA!). However, arguing about whether he out-raps Jay-Z or Kanye is missing the point of the record: “Ali MC, I fight for more than the title,” he raps on “Gold.”  With an album full of lyrics like these, does it even matter whether or not he gets it?

4 / 5 bars

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