20 years after the release of Common’s most lauded track, VIBE drops a 2014 update
It was 1994 —a golden year for the culture—when a 22-year-old Common Sense dropped “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” the quintessential hip-hop love letter. Brash and heartfelt, the Resurrection standout got in our skin immediately. Although its tone bordered slightly on the melancholy, it wasn’t sappy; just emotionally tinged, in the way one remembers a lost love. It came at a time when, in Common Sense’s view, the artform was experiencing severe identity issues. While incredible work was no doubt being made, there was also an incessant amount of violence and misogyny clouding its beauty. The short of it: Boy falls in love with girl, things begin sweetly enough. In time, girl seeks to expand her worldview, morphing into someone, or, rather something, boy no longer understands. She sells herself, compromises her virtue, and eventually relocates. Boy grows up, becomes a man, all the while anticipating that they will one day reunite. //www.youtube.com/embed/C99iG4HoO1c?rel=0 In 2014, many would argue that hip-hop has strayed so far from her roots she is hardly recognizable (for consistency we’ll keep with the female designation here). She’s older now, over 40, and with age has come transformation. She’s moved around a ton, never quite settling anywhere. Not in the boom-bap sensibilities of her East Coast upbringing, the gangsta rap ethos of the early West, nor the Dirty South or Midwest, both with their own unique contributions. And this is healthy. Instead of abiding in one spot, hip-hop has managed to achieve a certain omnipresence that has made her a powerful voice in this generation’s consciousness. Fact is, everyone and everything must undergo change at some point. Even the man who penned the classic tale in question is not the same. Common, as he now goes by, is smarter and sharper than ever. Throughout the years we’ve watched him experiment and evolve. From his fashion sense to his activism, big-screen roles to his vegan stint, he too has grown and expanded his reach. And his career, which has progressed in ways one could not have predicted, has been one to admire. The Chicago native has released 10 albums, written a memoir (One Day It’ll All Make Sense), and his film credits are in the dozens. Yet 20 years removed from the gem that is “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” a song that has aged with the best of them, one thing holds true: Hip-hop never left him, nor did Common leave her. “I can remember when Dion gave me the beat for ‘I Used to Love H.E.R.’ I was overwhelmed,” Common told Complex. “My mind started drifting and I remember having that thought really quick about hip-hop being a girl.” To commemorate 20 years since “I Used to Love H.E.R.,” writer Juan Vidal imagines an updated, 2014 sequel verse to Com’s classic. Four decades later and she’s been around the world/ She’s starting to grey now, no longer a little girl Not the innocent honey I messed with as a youngin’/ But more powerful than ever, she’s stone cold stunning And a gem, still I feel her inner conflict/ How she longs for her roots and the days she was conscious But that’s the side of her she flaunts when she chooses/ Her mind is a chameleon adapting and intruding Her right hand on the pulse of a generation/ She invaded corporate America and won the love of nations The old souls say she’ll never be the same/ While the kids coming up find direction in her name Talking heads on the tube assume she’s the one to blame/ When our cities go haywire and mothers wallow in pain But we embrace her, all the tears and the laughs/ She’s her own woman now and she’s on her own path Juan Vidal is a writer and critic for NPR, Esquire and VIBE. He’s on Twitter: @itsjuanlove
