Flow - Common

Common used "The Corner", from his album Be, to really flex his boom-bap ability. There is so much to say about this song from the structure, to the delivery, to the flow, and the wordplay. My focus will be on the first verse but I have to speak on the structure of the song a bit. Each verse is done primarily with an end rhyme and stresses particular syllables. 

The first verse uses the "0" sound, the second employs the "ight" ending while the third utilizes an "i" sound. He also plays with his voice, dropping it on the end rhyme for each bar.

"Memories on corners with the Fours and the Moors
Walk to the store for the Rose talking straightforward to hoes"

He also uses "and" a lot to compare and contrast and provide imagery. It also kind of minimalist in some ways. By doing this Com gives the song a cypher kind of sound, a delivery you would hear with a bunch of heads out on a corner just reporting out the things going on around them. Hence the songs title. Adding the Last Poets furthers that feel.



Despite its pared down style it is not devoid of slick wordplay also...

"So we can cop clothes and roll in a Rolls
Now I roll in a Olds with windows that don't roll
Down the roads where cars get broke-in and stole"

"In they socks and they souls niggas holding they rolls"

"They shoot the wrong way cause they ain't knowing they goal"

Verse 1: Common]
Memories on corners with the Fours and the Moors
Walk to the store for the rose talking straightforward to hoes
Got uncles that smoke and some put blow up they nose
To cope with they lows, the wind is cold and it blows
In they socks and they souls niggas holding they rolls
Corners leave souls opened and closed, hoping for more
With nowhere to go, niggas rolling in droves
They shoot the wrong way cause they ain't knowing they goal
The streets ain't safe cause they ain't knowing the code
By the Fours I was told either focus or fold
Got cousins with flows hope they open some doors
So we can cop clothes and roll in a Rolls
Now I roll in a Olds with windows that don't roll
Down the roads where cars get broke-in and stole
These are the stories told by Stony and Cottage Grove
The world is cold the block is hot as a stove
On the corners

[Hook: Kanye West]
I wish I could give ya this feeling
I wish I could give ya this feeling
On the corners, niggas robbing, killing, dying
Just to make a living (huh)

[Spoken: The Last Poets]
We overstated, We underrated, we educated
The corner was our time when times stood still
And gators and snakeskins and yellow and pink
And powder blue profiles glorifying that

[Verse 2: Common]
Streetlights and deep nights cats trying to eat right
Riding no seat bikes with work to feed hypes
So they can keep sweet Nikes they head and they feet right
Desires of street life cars and weed types
It's hard to breath nights days are thief like
The beast roam the streets the police is Greek like
Game at it's peak we speak and believe hype
Bang in the streets hats cocked left or deep right
Its steep life coming up where sheep like
Rappers and hoopers we strive to be like
G's with 3 stripes, seeds that need light
Cheese and weaves tight needs and thieves strike
The corner where struggle and greed fight
We write songs about wrong cause it's hard to see right
Look to the sky hoping it will bleed light
Reality is a bitch and I heard that she bites
The corner

[Hook]

[Spoken: The Last Poets]
The corner was our magic, our music, our politics
Fires raised as tribal dancers and
war cries that broke out on different corners
Power to the people, black power, black is beautiful

[Verse 3: Common]
Black church services, murderers, Arabs serving burger its
Cats with gold permanents move they bags as herbalist
The dirt isn't just fertile its people working and earning this
The curb-getters go where the cash flow and the current is
It's so hot, that, niggas burn to live the furnace is
Where the money move & the determined live
We talk shit play lotto & buy German beers
It's so black, packed with action that's affirmative
The corners

[Hook]

[Spoken: The Last Poets]
The corner was our Rock of Gibraltar, our Stonehenge
Our Taj Mahal, our monument,
Our testimonial to freedom, to peace and to love
Down on the corner...