Common spent the ’90s carrying the Native Tongues torch through an era dominated by gangsta rap, earning a sizeable underground following. Positive-minded alternative rap came back into vogue by the new millennium, and Common managed to land with major label MCA for 2000’s Like Water for Chocolate. The album established him as a leading figure of alternative rap’s second generation, not just because of the best promotion he’d ever had, but also because it was his great musical leap forward, building on the strides of ‘One Day It’ll All Make Sense‘.

There’s production work by the Roots‘ Questlove, neo-soul auteur D’Angelo, the Soulquarians, and DJ Premier. But the vast majority of the album was handled by Slum Village‘s Jay Dee, and his thick, mellow, soul- and jazz-inflected sonics make Like Water for Chocolate one of the richest-sounding albums of the new underground movement.

A1. Time Travellin’ (A Tribute to Fela)
A2. Heat
A3. Cold Blooded
A4. Dooinit

B1. The Light
B2. Funky for You
B3. The Questions
B4. Time Travellin’ (Reprise)

C1. The 6th Sense
C2. A Film Called (Pimp)
C3. Nag Champa (Afrodisiac for the World)
C4. Thelonius

D1. Payback Is a Grandmother
D2. Geto Heaven Remix T.S.O.I.
D3. A Song for Assata
D4. Pops Rap III… All My Children