A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 2)

One could likely call the whole of Common’s catalogue “movement music”—the term he’s using to encapsulate his output in the wake of 2020’s social justice uprising—but the MC is especially dialled in across his A Beautiful Revolution series. The second chapter, which arrived just short of a year after the first, is another helping of the Chicago-raised MC’s relentless positivity and undying expressions of devotion to Black women and Black culture. There are outright love letters like “Set It Free”, “Saving Grace” and “Poetry” (an ode to the art form) and then semi-autobiographical messages of inspiration like “A Beautiful Chicago Kid” and “Star of the Gang”. Returning from A Beautiful Revolution (Pt 1) are guests Black Thought, Paris “PJ” Jones, Jessica Care Moore and Morgan Parker, the latter two of whom bookmark the project with particularly stirring spoken-word pieces.