Chicago-born rapper common has a passion for creating conceptual suites of art rather than collections for commerce. With his fourth album, Like Water for Chocolate, he seems no closer to gaining platinum discs on his wall, but the listener might be all the better for it. Make no mistake: Dance jams like "The Light" and "Funky for You" bump like acne. But what might keep them from heavy club rotation is Com's need (quoting the Pharcyde) to kick something that means something. "I pray every day," he raps, "more than anything, friends we'll stay/As we begin to lay/This foundation for a family/Love ain't simple." Then there are numbers like "A Song for Assata," a Cliffs Notes version of Assata Shakur's struggle against the American government. Com also has fun with politics: On "A Film Called (Pimp)" — a duet with the sorely missed MC Lyte — he playfully wrestles with his own image by donning the mask of Cornbread Com, a vegan, bean-pie-pushing pimp. A hip-hop MC willing to actually examine himself through his art? There's nothing Common about that.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.