Despite the critical and commercial success of Like Water for Chocolate, Common is going in a completely different direction with his follow-up project, according to the Chicago MC's good friend and frequent collaborator Ahmir "?uestlove"
Thompson.
"[The album] is called Electric Circus," said ?uestlove, who laid down tracks for the LP and is one of the project's executive producers. "[It sounds like [Pink Floyd's] Dark Side of the Moon plus [David Bowie's] Ziggy Stardust plus Prince Paul in a blender. He is breaking every rule known to man."
Common hasn't completely turned a deaf ear on the age-old adage "If ain't broke don't fix it." ?uestlove said that as he did on Like Water for Chocolate, Common is calling on fellow members of the Soulquarians clique, such as singers Erykah Badu and Bilal and producers Jay Dee and James Poyser, to join him on Electric Circus. English dance artist Omar will also be a part of the lineup this time around.
"The usual suspects [worked on the album]," ?uest said. "But we're doing stuff we normally wouldn't do. I know [Common] doesn't want to do an album that sounds like his last album. ... We have songs that defy form, defy time, defy melodic structure. This is his version of ... I won't say On the Corner by Miles Davis, but it's gonna be controversial. A lot of his die-hard people are going to be thrown off. But at the end of the day he makes music for him."
?uestlove said Common won't be dropping his LP until close to the middle of next year despite being just a few songs away from completion. He cited the hefty competition of the fourth-quarter release schedule and the need for proper setup time as the reasons for the delay.
A spokesperson at MCA, Common and ?uestlove's label, could not be reached.
This report is from MTV News.
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