Can I Borrow A Dollar? - Album Review

The album that shoulda, coulda, woulda been a classic.

I'm gonna write as if I don't really know what's coming next, for those who may or may not have heard it. I'll quote, cuz there's quotables all over this album. Okay then.


A Penny for My Thoughts
First of all, the samples in the beginning are kinda interesting, tryna place where they came from. I think I caught Superfly in there and some snippets from In Living Color. All right, the beat is great, classic material. A very sped-up sample of Eddie Kendrick's Intimate Friends... And Common drops a couple of great verses to go along with it. Pretty much one of those confessional life tracks... There's not too much to be said for this track, but the first track on the album should pretty much always be good, and this one
delivers.

"I'm comin' around the mountain high, ass lower than a valley
I'm the cat from the alley, from the back, I'ma rally
and tally up points, rollin' joints, risin to the tops
Somewhat of a playwright, 'cause like a stage, I got props
My crew's a strange brew, a drink a day'll keep the stink away
We been through A.A., but hey, what can I say?"

Charms Alarm
The beat is just decent, but Common flows on the track real well, if anything. Well, it's the first beat that 2 pc. DRK work on as a team. This is like one of the earlier types of songs he does that criticizes the state of hip hop, before H.E.R. comes around. Not sure what the sampled hook has to do with anything, but whatever. The beats not so bad that it's unlistenable, so this song ain't that bad.

Take It EZ
Ah... the next 2 pc. DRK beat, and I really like this one. Very jazzy touch, but more lively than most jazz rap beats tend to be. You can tell Common's real young on this album, because this is one of the few songs where his voice cracks really loudly. Lyrically this song's great as well. It's mostly about how dope Common is, but some of the lines he drops are stinging. He rhymes the same word for a pretty impressive length of time, and the pace of his flow reminds of early Jay-Z, back when he used to run with Jaz-O. Also, I didn't know the Allstate motto was the same back in '92, interesting... Either way, the future for this album looks good by now.

"I be kickin' it with the doubly-dope rhymer
I'm trippin' and dippin' and slippin' with the rhyme like Slimer
[Who ya gonna call?] Ghostbuster
I'm Petey Wheatstraw, and I'm just a
Hustler, I tried to scheme for a sec
But the record got wreck, tried to write a bad check
So I checked myself, before self got buck-
wild, tried to live how I had to fluctuate
To a snake, and metriculate, yo, I had to elevate"

Heidi Hoe
WOOOOOW... This is bullshit, any way you hack it. Production and hype-man chorus done courtesy of the Beatnuts, who I honestly never liked anyway, but since they're Native Tongues peripherals, I acknowledge their existence. Common at his very worst, making these immature threats at hoes around his neighborhood and how he hates them shit... I tihnk he says somethin' like, "after I bill you, kill you/'cause your shit smells like mildew"... This is the kinda song I wish had never been made, but, alas, it was. The only saving grace is that it is Common here, so the lyricism is competent. But still, terrible song.

Breaker 1/9
So yeah, No I.D. sampled the Isley's Between the Sheets before Biggie ever rapped over it. However, he only uses two bars of the song and repeats them, rather than letting it go into the bridge, which I always thought was a mistake, because it makes what could have been a really good beat into just a decent one. This song's about girls and skills, nothing we haven't hear before, but Common spits capable rhymes that makes the song worth listening to anyway. Not an album highlight.

Two Scoops of Raisins (feat. No I.D.)
Album highlight! Well, sorta... You have to listen to it real loud to catch, but the beat's actually dope in a very subtle kinda way. Funky, no other word for it. They're basically rapping cleverly about cereal and life, lol... But it works. No I.D. is a very good rapper, as far as producer rappers go, because they usually care too much about their beats to really try and kill the song. Not too much to say about the song, lol, it's about cereal. One important thing to notice, tho, is that No I.D. and Ynot seem to have schizophrenia on this album... several of the songs completely change around into another beat. A very different one. It's actually nice to hear, because it gives the song a different pace. It's not so blatant here, but it's there.

No Defense
Ynot showing off his DJ skills.... this is really an interlude. However, he's pretty good at it, seeing as he's looping 5 or more sources saying the words "No defense", "against" and "Common Sense."

Blows to the Temple
Ynot's first solo beat debut, and what a beat it is. Best song so far, by far. It's some kinda piano riff with an electric bass underlying... And the drums are sick, and then it sorta switches into a neo-Jamaican style cover for a few seconds before the hook comes around. This is essentially a diss track to no one, but anybody who thought that Bitch In Yoo is the only type of flow that Common can diss someone with will have another thing comin'. Speedy rappin', overall good song with some great quotables.

"A tisket a tasket, you're gonna get your ass kicked
You better wonder what's in my jacket, fuck the basket
Oh, God damn child, I mean it's drastic
You end up on a stretched cause I stretch you like Plastikman
Fuck with me ("you end up the in the cas-ket")
You flaw ass pussy nigga sucka duck bastard
(Yo Common calm down, you gots to calm down!)
This Grape tried to step to me, with his arms down
Lesson number one: when you're ready to throw
Never step up talkin'
That's like tryin to pitch, but you're balkin'
And I'ma steal first, hide the base, but you base
You can call me Pencil Petey cause the marks I erase
In case of emergency, it's urgent see, that you see a doctor
You tried to Gamble, but I'm the Proctor
I knock that ass, bringin' it down and then slash
Tried to play me with a skit, but now you got a cast
You character, 'fore ya inherit a, neckbrace
Makin' ya thousand deaths times worser than a Screwface"

Just In the Nick of Rhyme
And ya don't stop... This beat is also good, quieter, but Common basically brings the same heat, like he didn't burn all of it off the last time. His flow is really fast here. It's crazy. But this is the biggest beat change, in the last beat they do as 2 pc. DRK. I have a theory that No I.D. did the mellow part of the track, but it changes very quickly into this crazy Salsa beat that's insanely effective, and I think Ynot may have did this. Common doesn't lose it through the beat change, this song's fire as well.

"Fella a city dweller, it's poison salmonella
Auntie's name is Stella, style as def as Helen Keller
Nail a flammer with the Hammer for comin 'incorrect
Not with his grammar or bad mamma jamma
Similar to Bruce Banner
So don't get me angry, or maybe you won't like me
Kid just in the nick I kick more ass than Bruce Lee's Nike's did"

Tricks Up My Sleeve (feat. Rayshel)
So I don't much care for this song... I never noticed this before, but it's pretty much like the '92 version of Water for Chocolate's A Film Called Pimp... and I don't really like either so much, but this one doesn't even feature MC Lyte. Plus, it's disturbingly graphic... rappin' slowly about fucking girl's philopian tubes. Charming. Also, Rayshel sounds really implausible to me, because she sounds a lot like a lesbian. But hey... Skippable song.

Puppy Chow
ARRGH!!!! Now this song pisses me the fuck off. Ynot makes what is arguably the best beat of his career, sampling the Isley Bros and then following it with some dope guitar tune... Great. Only problem is, it's Common rapping about why girls are just dogs that he treats accordingly. Hey, interesting factual here... the woman singing on the track is Miss Jones from Hot 97. Weird, right? Well appropriate also, because she certainly is a bitch.. And I mean, the song is clever with its references, but it's one of those bad clever songs instead of good. Disappointed in you here, Com.

Soul By the Pound
Ahhh, another great one as we wind down in this pretty short album. The beats actually pretty cool in a minimalist sorta way, and it's covered by some wonderfully offbeat whistling sound It's cool because it's like the whole hip hop consciousness within the "I'm dope" flavor. Lyrically, I don't know what's better, this or Blows to the Temple. Either way, it's insane. I love it. Quooooooootable.

"It's sick you sick, I'm sicker, I flick a flea flicker
Think of that boa constrictor but the venom I inflict-a
is stricter, I stick, I stick the stinkin' to a stunk
If soda was a forty dog, then I would be like, drunk
If if was a fifth I would lift the fifth and a spliff
it's not a myth about our dick width
I'm swift and I shoot the presents
In essence count your blessings I got a Wessun if you riff
I'm a nigga with SOOOOOOOUL
My last name should be Smithsonian
I'm gassin girls heads, just like petroleum
Get 'em ready to bone me and, then I play custodian
And turn off the lights this is the likes of a
Ticketing wallowing high jumping radio rumping brother
Got Seoul like Korea, gimme an inch, I'll take a liter
A chick is a chick that's how I treat her
never go pop I'm not a two liter
A true leader, don't choose to follow, choose what I swallow
Whether water or a beer bottle, of course I play the lotto
Wear 'em? No, share 'em? A hoe
I like the girls, the girls I share a life with a bro
'Cause U-A-C is family, much tighter than foundations
that holds up the walls, so you better proceed with caution"

Pitchin' Pennies
This is disappointing too, but only 'cause the No I.D. beat is very very dope, but he only uses the song to name all his Chicago buddies. Maybe Kanye and Lupe got it from him, but hey, who knows. Then he... pisses at the end. WTF. Complete waste of a track, but if you're like me, you enjoy the song and then turn before he actually says "I gotta piss."



Overall, this is a very solid album, with a few fundamental mistakes. But it's a good debut anyway. Common's grown a lot since then, and hey, this is just him when he's a teenager. But still, great album, sorta an explosion of talent and some immaturity, but the more you listen to it, I think you'll learn to really really like the good songs and really really hate the bad ones. It's that catchy.

Rating: 8.7/10