Grammy Nominationsįinding Forever was nominated for three 2007 Grammy Awards: 15 on Rolling Stone's list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007. The album has since been certified gold by the RIAA as of October 25, 2007. Despite some minor criticisms, Finding Forever was well-received, yet did not reach the same respect as his previous album Be. Rolling Stone similarly criticized it for being boring at times (though they gave a generally positive review). Pitchfork Media criticized it for being "tired". Receptionįinding Forever has received mainly positive reviews from music critics. The music video was co-directed by Kerry Washington. The fourth single was " I Want You", mixed by Dylan "3-D" Dresdow and produced by will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Its video premiered on YouTube on September 1, 2007. The third single is " Drivin' Me Wild", which features Lily Allen. The duo brought in DJ Premier to scratch a chorus out of lines from "Half Good, Half Sinner" by O.C.
The first video shot for the album, as well the second single for this album is " The Game." It contains free associative lyrics and a 1990s style boom bap beat. On the track, Common name-checks J Dillla and DJ Premier, rapping, "My daughter found Nemo/ I found the new Primo." He added that "The People" "is really a declaration of who I am right now." Released on May 22, 2007, " The People" featuring a chorus by Dwele is the first single on Finding Forever, and produced by Kanye West. The track is remade for Finding Forever under the alias "Southside". It does come out" SinglesĬommon and Kanye West debuted "Southside Super Bowl" on VH1's Super Bowl Pre Bash. But then you do get to the essence of what you are here for. 'Cause I wanted to take on new subject matters and different things so I could grow and keep it interesting for me. I think that's where that stems from, me not really going hard on the rhymes. I spit so much on the first albums – and not to say I was the ultimate spitter, but I did it so much that I was looking for new things to do as a writer. "I've been doing albums so long, so I look for new challenges. "Sometimes you forget to just rap," Common explained when going back over a few of his past missteps. "It's gonna be like College Dropout and Be and Illmatic all fusioned together". It has also been said that Kanye West attempted to bring back a really soulful feel to the album. Music ProductionĬommon said that on some tracks, Kanye tried to chop the samples in a similar way to Dilla as a way of honoring him. I definitely felt freer." Kanye West described the recording sessions as "a real easy environment". At a certain point, as an artist, you go through things like, 'Man, I gotta make something better than what I did before.' I didn't feel like that this time, like I got to make this better than Be.
Common explained that "if you working on a movie or something. Most of the album was recorded while he was filming his roles in American Gangster and Smokin' Aces. And it's also saying: I been doing this for a nice period of time, so I'm trying to find the place where I can keep existing in the game and make music I love." RecordingĬommon began working on the album in early 2006, recording it throughout the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Hawaii, and Spain with Kanye West. And I’m continuing on the quest to make forever music." Ĭommon also says: "And now with the death of J Dilla and other things, you start thinking about forever lasting for real through music Jay Dee will last forever through his music and hopefully generations down the line will know about Common through his music. And I look at music like Bob Marley's or Marvin Gaye's or Stevie Wonder's or A Tribe Called Quest's, that's forever music. Music can be forever if you make it from the heart, if you make it from the soul and it’s good. Finding Forever was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Album, losing to Kanye West's Graduation at the 50th Grammy Awards Ĭommon explains that " Finding Forever really means to find a place in music where you can exist forever. Selling over 500,000 units in the US, it has been certified Gold. The album debuted at the number one on the Billboard 200, selling 155,000 units in the first week, becoming Common's first chart-topper. Like Common's previous album, Be (2005), Finding Forever is primarily produced by Kanye West. Kanye West ( exec.), Common (co-exec), Derek Dudley (co-exec), will.i.am, J Dilla, Devo Springsteen, Karriem Riggins, Derrick Hodgeįinding Forever is the seventh studio album by Common, released on Jon GOOD Music and Geffen Records.