Fresh from the Common / N.E.R.D. concert, look for an upcoming review shortly, I heard a song that I haven’t heard in a minute. The artist Common, back then known as Common Sense, the song “I Used To Love H.E.R.”. The song was originally released back in 1994 on the album Resurrection and became one of Common’s most well known songs and produced by No I.D.

The song itself is well known as a bittersweet ode to hip-hop and uses crazy metaphors comparing a woman to hip-hop. H.E.R. stands for “Hip Hop in its Essence and Real”, but it has been thought that it could stand for “Hearing Every Rhyme”.

This song was also the catalyst in which a beef was sparked between Ice Cube and Common, as it criticized the direction that hip-hop music was taking in the mid 90’s and how it moved away from conscious and Afrocentric rap to a more grittier and violent lyrics. The beef between the two was short-lived as it was subsequently squashed in a sit-down with Minister Louis Farrakhan.

Check these lines:

I might’ve failed to mention that the shit was creative
But once the man got you well he altered the native
Told her if she got an energetic gimmick
That she could make money, and she did it like a dummy
Now I see her in commercials, shes universal
She used to only swing it with the inner-city circle
Now she be in the burbs lickin rock and dressin hip
And on some dumb shit, when she comes to the city
Talkin about poppin glocks servin rocks and hittin switches
Now shes a gangsta rollin with gangsta bitches
Always smokin blunts and gettin drunk

The whole song is deep overall and you can find a lot of hidden meanings and possible jabs at other artists that were coming out during that time frame. But this song right here, is easily one of my favorites from the man now known as Common.