One Day It’ll All Make Sense

Common’s third album One Day It’ll All Make Sense was released following some of the most important events of the man’s entire career. Firstly, he had become embroiled in a beef with legendary MC Ice Cube because of lyrics on his classic single “I Used To Love H.E.R.”, which resulted in Com’s classic disstrack “The Bitch In Yoo” in 1996. Secondly, he’d been forced to change his stage name from “Common Sense” to just “Common”, something slyly alluded to in this album title. And thirdly, he had become a father, albeit not one who was going to be available for his daughter all the time, as him and the mother weren’t staying together. This last point is discussed heavily on the album’s single “Retrospect For Life”.

These new experiences in Lonnie’s life were perhaps what inspired this new direction – this album is more inventive, and features more “conscious” lyrics than his previous two albums, even if some of the more braggadocios themes from Can I Borrow a Dollar? and Resurrection still remain. The album deals with themes such as religion, fatherhood, home invasions and Common’s issues with the state of the rap game – there’s a lot to digest in the album’s 70 minute runtime.

This project also marked the end of an era for Common – it was his last album to be released through Relativity Records, and also his last album to be largely produced by No I.D. for a long while – the pair wouldn’t come together again until 2011’s The Dreamer/The Believer. It’s worth noting that this project also has one of the most stacked feature lists in the Common catalogue – Lauryn Hill, De La Soul, CeeLo Green, Erykah Badu, Black Thought, Q-Tip and Canibus all make their presence known on here.

This album is widely regarded as Common’s first true foray into the sub-genre of conscious hip-hop, and while surrounding albums Resurrection and Like Water For Chocolate sometimes overshadow it, a lot of people still consider this to be one of the strongest LPs in Com’s discography.